Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

Football, food and five days of fun were found at the Return to Wolfstock Homecoming Festival this weekend, as alumni, students, faculty and staff celebrated together with the greater Stony Brook University community. Wolfstock ran from October 18-22 and featured a variety of events across campus, highlighted by a day full of activity on Saturday. Wolfstock Village rose up from the LaValle Stadium parking lot, where hundreds of people gathered for the ultimate pre-game experience and some tasty barbecue. Fans of all ages participated in games, face painting, a giant slide and a photo booth, and ate great food.     Click here to read the original article.  

STONY BROOK, NY, October 24, 2023 – Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) has been named among the top tier of hospitals nationwide for stroke and cardiac care, according to Healthgrades, a leading resource that evaluates approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide solely on patient outcomes. Stony Brook has been named as one of: America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care™ (2015-24), making it one of only two hospitals in New York State to receive this distinction for 10 consecutive years. America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Stroke Care™ (2016-24), the only hospital in New York State to receive this award for 9 consecutive years. This places SBUH within the top 5% for stroke care and the top 10% for cardiac care — reflecting SBUH’s outstanding clinical performance and distinguishes it as one of the country’s leading hospitals. Healthgrades identified the 100 Best Hospitals for 16 of the most common specialty care areas – recipient hospitals represent the top 2% of hospitals for each specialty. These newest rankings come on the heels of Stony Brook achieving the highest level of national recognition as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2023.   Click here to read the original article.  

The SUNY Korea Museum of Modern Costume has opened a new “short-term” exhibition titled “Chic & Chill: Winter Garments with a Twist.” The exhibition features the extraordinary winter fashion creations of the renowned designer, Kim Dong Soon. This exhibit provides a glimpse into the meticulous artistry and craftsmanship behind each of Kim Dong Soon’s pieces, elevating winter attire to wearable works of art. With a focus on carefully curated textures and innovative designs, the exhibition unravels the intriguing ideas and techniques of the designer. The exhibition will be available from October 23, 2023 through November 17, 2023. The exhibition will be open on weekdays from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and closed on holidays and weekends. Don’t miss out on visiting this museum and getting the opportunity to unravel innovative ideas and techniques in this limited-time exhibition.

STONY BROOK, NY – October 23, 2023 – The American Physical Society (APS) announced that Derek Teaney, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, is among the organization’s 2023 Fellows. This distinction recognizes Professor Teaney as a leading physicist whose research and service as an educator have helped advance the frontiers of science and technology. Professor Teaney’s research involves Quantum Chromodynamics, which describes the nearly massless particles called quarks and gluons that exist within the nucleus of every atom. When nuclei are crashed into each other at high speeds, these particles form an extremely hot and dense state of matter known as quark-gluon plasma, which existed a microsecond after the big bang. Professor Teaney’s work has helped elucidate these collisions, painting a more complete picture of the quark-gluon plasma in the very early universe. Click here to read the original article.  

Founded in 2013, Chalk FIT is still going strong 10 years later. And in recognition, “Celebration” is the theme for the chalk pastel murals that wrap FIT’s Goodman and Pomerantz buildings from West 26th Street along Seventh Avenue to West 28th Street. Students in their senior year of the Illustration program are each given a panel of the stone building in which to realize their drawing. Some students collaborated on larger panels; others are the result of individuals. They use a chalk medium donated from a local Blick store that doesn’t damage the buildings’ facades. For this year’s theme, students were prompted to “consider the meaning of the word celebration, and what you want to celebrate in your life, your community, family and/or the world at large.” Students began painting their works on Oct. 16 and were complete by Oct. 20. Many artists share their Instagram handles or other information above their work so you can follow them. You learn more and/or share about your experience @ChalkFIT.

    Professor Yoon Seok Yang from the Computer Science Department was a featured speaker at the Korea Times Forum: Survival and Growth Strategies in the AI Era, which took place on Wednesday, October 18th, at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry building in Seoul. Professor Yang took part in the initial panel discussion, which focused on the transformative influence of AI technology on human society and addressed the ethical concerns accompanying its advancement. Along with Professor Yang, Uhm Yul, Director General of the Artificial Intelligence Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, Chang Joong-ho, a professor at Seoul School of Integrated Sciences & Technologies (aSSIST), and Kim Myoung-shin, Principal Policy Officer at LG AI Research were also esteemed participants of the discussion panel.  Professor Yang highlighted: “I have worked in Silicon Valley for over ten years, and I was part of the AlphaGo developing team, and all developers say that the AI developing trend is so fast that even they don’t know how and when AI will become the dominant force in the future world.  AI innovation holds significant potential across diverse industries. Specifically, it plays a pivotal role in the medical industry, aiding the development of new drugs and medical treatments; contributes to risk assessment and investment analysis within the financial industry; and its language model technologies reshapes operations within the business sector. These advancements all influence our present way of life.   When considering the ethical factors, we cannot stop the growth in technological advancement; rather we need to focus on minimizing side effects through regulations. Emphasizing the risk factors is crucial when developing new technologies, and simultaneously, safeguarding personal information must be a paramount concern."   Professor Yoon Seok Yang is an assistant professor in the Computer Science department at SUNY Korea, Stony Brook University. Professor Yang completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University. Prior to his academic role, he contributed as a research scientist at the Neuromorphic Computing Lab at Intel Labs in California, and worked in Google as a silicon and research engineer in the Tensor Processing Unit.  To access more about forum click this LINK  

The Department of Technology and Society held a 3rd forum of “Annual Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) Faculty Panel: The Enabling Possibilities of Digital Development” on October 16th, 2023. It was moderated by Dr. Anthony Pennings. Five speakers participated in this event: Dr. James Larson, Dr. Suzana Brown, Dr. Sira Maliphol, Dr. Gayoung Park, and Dr. Mark Whitaker . This forum was obviously a great opportunity for DTS students; however, it was also helpful to students from other departments. It was a chance to interact with a group of DTS professors who are experts in the ICT4D sector. A total of 70 students from various majors took advantage of the opportunity to participate in this forum. After Dr. Pennings’ introduction on the “3rd Annual ICT4D Faculty Panel: The Enabling Possibilities of Digital Development,” each professor provided a short introduction, and then spoke about their personal experiences, research interests, the agenda they have researched, a detailed explanation of the research, examples of student reports, and future research. One commonality amongst the professors is that each mentioned asking students to come up with an approach to technology issues focusing on development. Additionally, they stated that ESG and SDG frameworks are important. ESG refers to the non-financial elements of a company: environment, social, and governance. SDG is an abbreviation for Sustainable Development Goals, also known as Global Goals.  Written by Student Reporter, Hyeonha Hwang (hyeonha.hwang@stonybrook.edu)

  Each year, the CFDA awards a handful of highly competitive scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students at institutions across the country, based on sketches and accompanying details for a fashion collection. Since 1996, the organization has given out 365 scholarships worth a total of $3.7 million. This year, three of the 13 winners were FIT Fashion Design students in the class of ’24. Benjamin Halunen won a CFDA x Crystal Bridges Heartland Scholar award, which came with a $25,000 scholarship. Nkenglack Nchopa was named an Amex Scholar and awarded $25,000. And Cassius Read, named the Versace Scholar, received $30,000. Click here to read the original article.

  On October 15th, FIT students club named ‘DNC (Design for Neighbor and Community)’ was selected for the ‘Global Art Market,’ which is one of the 20th anniversary event of Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority, IFEZA. In this event, they select a total of 20 teams to provide booths and an opportunity to sell their products related to the arts. The Global Art Market was held from 1 pm to 8 pm at the Central Park Grass Square behind the National Hangeul Museum. DNC club members created two logos: Miredosi (Future City) Songdo and Songdo Landmark with Hangeul. Miredosi (Future City) Songdo logo was designed with images that come to mind when the members think of Songdo International City. In Songdo, a beautiful sunset ends the day with a wonderful view of the buildings that couldn’t be found in other cities. Therefore, DNC designed the aspect of the sun filled with buildings, and the word future city, which can symbolize Songdo, was expressed by the syllable names in the music. A T-shirt with this Future City Songdo logo was shown in the opening video to commemorate the 20th-anniversary events of IFEZA. In addition, Jin-young Kim, the Director of IFEZA, also introduced this T-shirt to people by wearing it. Miredosi (Future City) Songdo Landmark Hangeul logo was inspired by the National Museum of World Writing Systems, which opened in Songdo this year. These Hangeul letters are designed with landmarks symbolizing Songdo. From the left, ‘ㅅ’ shows Posco Tower Songdo, ‘ㅗ’ shows Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority, ‘ㅇ’ shows Incheon Global Campus, ‘ㄷ’ shows Posco and Booyong Songdo Tower, and lastly ‘ㅗ’ shows Incheon Bridge, which connects two IFEZ Smart Cities: Songdo and Yeongjongdo. Songdo Landmark Hangeul logo       Written by Student Reporter, Hyeonha Hwang (hyeonha.hwang@stonybrook.edu)

SUNY Korea’s new brain-inspired computing research lab has been established. Led by Professor Yoonseok Yang from the Computer Science department, the Brain-Inspired Computing Lab (BCL) focuses on developing new computing technologies inspired by the human brain.  Starting from the Fall 2023 semester, the lab has already attracted the attention and interest of several undergraduates and graduate students. Together with Professor Yang, they hope to foster an environment of creativity, experimentation, and new discoveries.  The BCL has joined the Intel Neuromorphic Research Community (INRC), a consortium of academic, government, and industry groups around the world that are working to advance neuromorphic computing. Professor Yang is a leading expert in Neuromorphic Computing. His research has focused on developing new hardware and software platforms that can mimic the way the brain processes information. The BCL's work is expected to make significant contributions to the field of neuromorphic computing and could lead to the development of new and powerful computing technologies. Lab link: https://sites.google.com/view/suny-bcl/home         

  The Fall 2023 Internship Panel, which took place this past Wednesday, ended successfully. Four notable students were able to share their experiences as interns at various companies to their fellow colleagues during this event. The four students were Eunbin Cho (AMS), Minjun Kim (CS), and Christian Choi (TSM) from Stony Brook University, and Jennifer Christiana (FBM) from Fashion Institute of Technology. In the first half of the event, the speakers shared their unique experiences and gave tips. In the second half, students had the opportunity to ask questions, allowing for an interactive discussion. This was a great opportunity to learn about internship programs and meet other students. Eunbin Cho did her internship at SeeAnn Solution, a software and 3D modeling manufacturing company. Minjun Kim, a Computer Science major, finished his internship at d2 Engineering (engineering company), THE COMPANY (software development company), SOOBAK (Fashion, textile, and other specialized industry), and To Be Done (language institute). Christian Choi, a TSM major, did his internship at Pala, a software development company, Jennifer Christiana, Fashion Business Management major, completed her internship at Gingerline Curated (thrift & consignment store), Lee Seung Jin Wedding (designer's brand), Voda (designer's brand), and by Sophie (fashion & beauty company). (From the left: Jennifer Christiana, Eunbin Cho, Christian Choi, and Minjun Kim)   Throughout each semester, the Career Development Center provides numerous sessions that help in the development of future careers. This fall semester, key events include: FIT Alumni Talk on October 25, IGC Career Workshop on November 1, the SBU Alumni Panel on November 11, and Career Talk to You on November 15.

When you look at Fashion Design BFA alumna Hee Jin Hwang’s exquisite designs, you are also seeing the impact and influence of her sculptor father. Titled The Sculptor’s Daughter, Hwang’s capsule collection for the 2023 Supima Design Competition featured structural looks, a lot of texture, and a great deal of surface manipulation and volume. Each of the eight finalists in the Supima show created a look in twill, velveteen, jersey, denim, and shirting, using Supima cottons. The runway competition took place in early September, and the finalists were mentored by noted designer and FIT alumnus Bibhu Mohapatra. “My dad was a sculptor, and I consider every one of my pieces as sculpture,” Hwang said. “I wanted to bring volume and structural effect into the garments, which is why I did a lot of surface manipulation and surface treatment. The texture I’m channeling in fashion is his inspiration and his taste. In order to do that, I did a lot of hand smocking. He molded ceramic;I molded fabric.” Hwang, who grew up in South Korea, won a $25,000 CFDA scholarship in 2022 and was a finalist in the 2023 Macy’s x FIT Capsule: The Every Body Collection. Click here to read the original article.  

  Computer Science major Sooa Kim won 1st place in the 2023 Jeju Digital Social Innovation Hackathon Competition. The Hackathon competition, hosted by the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, was held on September 21st – 22nd. The theme of this year’s competition was proposing ideas for products or services that solve societal issues using digital technology. Sooa Kim came in first by proposing a customized power monitoring platform. “In Jeju, which has declared carbon neutrality since 2012 and is actively working to expand new and renewable energy sources, citizens can use the time-of-use electricity rate system that takes into consideration the characteristics of new and renewable energy. The time-of-use rate system is a shifting of electricity rates based on the season and time of day, and the ultimate goal is to match the supply curve of renewable energy and the demand curve for electricity. Accordingly, we proposed “Jirit” (찌릿, the sound of an electric shock), a customized power monitoring platform that encourages citizen participation by providing real-time monitoring of power usage and user-centered data analysis that induces demand response using incentives. Through this, we can expect economic benefits for electricity users and a carbon reduction effect through the time-based rate system. It was a meaningful time to address the shortcomings of the existing power analysis platform with technology optimized for Jeju Island's unique power system. I had the opportunity to receive feedback from professional mentors regarding the issues that needed improvement when the platform is put into use, and this led me to consider a more user-centered approach.

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on University Education A recent study claimed that ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot, completed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) undergraduate curriculum in mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering with 100-percent accuracy. While the study is a preprint, meaning that it hadn’t yet passed through peer review it has 15 authors, including several MIT professors.  Recent progresses in AI technology have raised several important questions for university educators. Will AI reduce students’ creativity? With access to vast amounts of information, students can use AI to solve their homework and assignments, rather than using their own creativity and knowledge to solve such problems. Does AI technology impact all fields of education equally? Will AI technology take away the control of education from universities and give control to major technology companies? Can AI effectively be used to improve higher education? While the answers to these and many other questions are still being debated, several conclusions can already be made.  AI technology will greatly impact higher education and we must accept that the traditional models of higher education must change dramatically. Technology will continue to advance and unless students and faculty adapt, they will be eliminated from the modern education system.  A major potential impact of AI is to change the education system from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered system. In this system students will have a much more active role in a class. The faculty will not play the only active role in a class, but the main participation will come from students. The impact is not limited to the role of the faculty. An AI based education system can move towards individualized education. It is understood that the learning ability of students can be very different. AI allows faculty to recognize these differences and provide individualized models of learning to different students and actively monitor their progress.  While AI technology can be used in all fields, the level of its application can be different. For example, in areas such as chemistry and biology and mechanical engineering where visual modeling is important AI can have a lot of applications. In contrast in fields such as theoretical mathematics, the application may be less.  The application of AI tools such as ChatGPT in some of the areas of arts or humanities such as language and literature can be significant. In general, the impact in theoretical fields may be more limited.  A properly designed AI based education actually may help advance students’ creativity. For example, in the current educational system students are asked to memorize a lot of information. Using AI, the system instead can focus more on analysis and research of complex problems. Obviously, the types of questions must change from simple questions to those requiring research and analysis. Questions which can be answered through an Internet search are not typically complex problems faced in industry and society anyway.   Students today are very technology savvy, mastering any new technology very quickly. Continuous training for faculty to keep up with students in this regard is essential. Today we are educating students for jobs that do not yet exist. The same conditions apply to AI based education. Many faculty were educated when such technologies did not exist. This gap between what faculty learned and what they need to apply today must be addressed with sustained continuing education. Utilizing teams of faculty with different expertise is a way of addressing this issue. Addressing a complex problem such as this requires educational authorities to develop a road map, utilizing faculty administrators and experts who believe in the need for change to bring this new technology into the educational system.  Click here to read the article.

Stony Brook University’s admissions application rate and enrollment experienced new highs in the 2023-2024 academic year, along with its largest-ever incoming first-year class. The increases in application and enrollment rates were announced by Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Retention Dawn Medley. The increases come as the university continues to build momentum, including being named a New York State flagship university as well as the anchor institution of The New York Climate Exchange, and receiving a $500 million endowment from the Simons Foundation. Click here to read the original article.