CUNY Establishing the ASRC Illumination space As A Hub for Public Interest

Details on the development of CUNY ASRC IlluminationSpace Hub (IS Hub), which uses PIT in four areas: STEM education, science communication, community-based science, and STEM workforce development. Our project objectives (detailed below) are advanced through the programmatic work of the IS Hub’s four components: the Community Sensor Lab (CSL), IS Virtual Classroom (moving forward, the IS Immersive Classroom), Science Communications Academy, and the IS Digital Community. The hub is just 18 months into its work, but the team has had great success establishing and strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders, including the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, which we partnered with to revamp and execute the Science Communications Fellowship; The Red Hook Initiative, which is a partner on our Community Sensor Lab work; and WEAct, who we are currently in conversation with to develop STEM advocacy/environmental justice training workshops for our program participants. These partnerships have been a key driver of our early successes as they have helped us establish credibility among the various constituents our project is designed to engage. We made significant progress toward our programmatic objects: The Community Sensor Lab (CSL) is a youth and community-member training space that engages CUNY STEM faculty and students, tech companies and other city institutions to partner with community participants to build low-cost environmental monitoring technology and data collection.