Jorge Guillen | Pixabay

The 席勒综合科学与社会电子游戏正规平台所—a much-anticipated locus of interdisciplinary work at 电子游戏软件—is developing its first initiatives under the guidance of Seidner Family Executive Director Laura J. 斯坦伯格.

今年5月,斯坦伯格从雪城大学(Syracuse University)加入不列颠哥伦比亚省,领导该电子游戏正规平台所, created with a $25 million gift from then-BC Trustee (now Trustee Associate) Phil Schiller ’82 还有他的妻子, 金正日Gassett-Schiller. 它将是新150的核心,将于2021年底在中校区开放的6000平方英尺的科学设施. The Seidner executive directorship was made possible through a gift from BC Trustee Marc Seidner ’88, 太平洋投资管理公司的总经理兼首席投资官, 还有他的妻子, 玛丽卢.

斯坦伯格最近谈到了她在教师中所做的努力, 与学生类似的工作, and an upcoming “seed” grant program designed to encourage faculty and student collaborations across disciplines and spark future research and scholarship. She also discussed her career path and her research and teaching on issues of environmental racism and justice.

劳拉·斯坦伯格

劳拉·斯坦伯格

She has been meeting with her fellow new faculty members and plans to continue virtual discussions with new and veteran faculty members on promoting integrative thinking across campus. 这些谈话将决定教师需要什么来提高他们对这类工作的兴趣, 斯坦伯格说,, who held a tenured professorship in civil and environmental engineering and also served as dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse.

斯坦伯格说:“我想了解学院如何才能最好地支持教员. “我们正在与校园内的教职员工进行接触. 我们对科学家感兴趣,但也对艺术史学家感兴趣. 他们的学术电子游戏正规平台如何与科学问题和人类对能源的看法相交叉, 健康, 还有环境? The aim is to integrate the sciences with the tremendous strengths we have as a University in so many disciplines.”

斯坦伯格希望利用她在锡拉丘兹大学培养的战略规划方面的优势. 在那里, 她带领学院招收基层教师, 工作人员, and student input to create a five-year strategic plan that ultimately identified five core areas of strength, 更好地分配资源, 开设新的本科和硕士学位课程, and outlined a hiring strategy that resulted in one-third of engineering faculty positions being filled by women.

下学期初, 斯坦伯格 plans to roll out a request for proposals from faculty for a grant program that encourages interdisciplinary scholarship to explore the environment, 能源, 健康——该电子游戏正规平台所的主要关注领域. 总共约200美元,000 will be available to fund proposals from teams that draw members from different departments and colleges.

A second grant program under development will ask for proposals from teams of students for projects that promote cooperation across departments, 与社区伙伴的合作, 或者允许参加会议和虚拟聚会. 提案将涉及该电子游戏正规平台所的三个核心领域, 以及关注共同利益和社会面临的复杂问题.

“We are already talking to students about what is important to them in terms of the Schiller Institute’s support of their interests,斯坦伯格说. “我们发现学生们想要两样东西. 他们想要建立一种社区意识,他们想要帮助推动学院的项目. 如果我们这样做, we get engagement and the students get the leadership experience from directing some of these efforts. 我们希望他们成为这个过程的一部分.”

随着电子游戏正规平台所的不断发展, 斯坦伯格 plans to create programming that connects students with industry and with non-governmental agencies to foster internships, 与现有的或新的学生社团合作, 将演讲者带到校园, 并协调体验式学习旅行.

“We really want to facilitate real-world projects so students can help to build a company or be involved in important efforts in the real world aimed at helping people and organizations address some of the pressing societal problems that we have,”她说。.

斯坦伯格 attributes her career path to a childhood interest in the structures and systems that help people work and live.

“我在纽约和新泽西长大, 我的家人总是在桥上、隧道里或经过水库. I became fascinated by how these things worked and realized that without infrastructure we would have very different lives,”她说。. “I became interested in improving the lived experiences of people through community-centered infrastructure and curious about how infrastructure could help improve conditions for people in developing areas of the world. 这就是我成为土木工程师的原因:作为一种职业,它最清楚地反映了我最深的兴趣.”

作为一名学者, 斯坦伯格 has also focused her attention on issues of environmental justice and environmental racism. 在她职业生涯的早期, 斯坦伯格 worked in the private sector on a project that built the infrastructure that now supports the Nigerian capital of Abuja, 以及纳瓦霍部落的水利工程. 作为博士后, her work at the National Institute of Statistical Science examined the disproportionate effects of pollution on Black, 拉丁美洲人, 低收入社区. 作为新奥尔良杜兰大学的一名教员, her research and teaching touched on the same issues in a region with high levels of industrial pollution.

“Decades of study about environmental justice reveal that environmental insults are symptomatic of systemic racism,斯坦伯格说。. “They need to be viewed in a much broader context than statistically determining whether they exist or not, 就像我在上世纪90年代做的那样. 我们想要超越肮脏工业和有色人种社区之间的联系. 事实上, 与美国种族正义论坛共同举办, the Schiller Institute is planning a program for later this year which will explore the many dimensions of environmental racism, 认识到它的历史根源以及它与社会学关注的联系, 政治权力, 种族隔离, 健康差异和环境污染模式.”

A specific passion of 斯坦伯格’s is the mentoring and support of women in the sciences and engineering. She has worked to make sure no young woman experiences the absence of female role models and mentors as she did 35 years ago.

“作为一名工程师,我对自己的工作充满热情,但在我的职业生涯中,没有任何女性榜样. 也就是35年. 我的领域里没有女性榜样. 没有,”她说.

今天, 她为她在ELATES所做的工作感到自豪, 这是一个支持学术界女性在STEM学科中寻求领导角色的国家项目. She also started a summer program at Syracuse that mentors middle school girls interested in engineering.

She plans to continue to serve as a mentor and role model to women from diverse backgrounds with a passion for science, 创新, 和创业.

“席勒学院的目标之一是促进女性教员的聘用, 女性博士后, 以及颜色的能力,斯坦伯格说. “We want to set an example for universities across the country on how to do that and how to do that well. 跨学科, we will have to work hard to make sure the people we do hire find success as fully-integrated members of the University. 我们将与学生团体和组织一起开展这项工作. We intend to attract a diverse student body to Schiller programs and work closely with AHANA students at BC.”

更多信息,请访问 席勒综合科学与社会电子游戏正规平台所网站.

Ed Hayward |大学传播| 2020年10月