Opening of the Continuos Innovation Learning Environments (CILES) Labs

Posted on June 24, 2016

The Earth Science and Environmental Sustainability (ESES) Graduate Initiative celebrated the grand opening of the Continuous Innovative Learning Environments (CILES) Labs on June 24 th at 9:30 am. After welcome remarks by Professor Jorge Gonzalez, Provost Dr. Maurizio Trevisan spoke as well as Dr. Tony Liss, Dean of Science of the City College of New York, Dr. Rosemarie Wesson, Associate Dean of the Grove School of Engineering, and Dr. Reza Khanbilvardi, NOAA Chair Professor of Civil Engineering and Executive Director of NOAA-CREST.

CILES represent a state of the art teaching and learning facilities to support EnvironmentalSciences and Engineering education. It features flexible rooms for students to have a continuous learning environment from lecture to the lab, and for extended discussions. It is a partnership between CCNY, Hostos, and La Guardia Community Colleges with the main mission of increasing the number of students pursuing environmental sciences and engineering degrees. Participant programs at CCNY include the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of the Sciences Division, the Earth System Science and Environmental Engineering Program of the Grove School of Engineering, and the NOAA-CREST Center. CILES facilities are open to all CCNY faculty and students, with priority to Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Earth Systems Science and Environmental Engineering programs.

The labs were made possible thanks to the financial support of the US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institutions Program, with a donation that exceeds $4M. Architect Stephen Ely designed the facilities in coordination with the CCNY Campus Planning and Design department.

The Earth Science and Environmental Sustainability (ESES) Graduate Initiative is located at the City College of New York. Its mission is to create a welcoming and intellectually inspiring environment where underrepresented graduate students can become scholars in the emerging fields of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability. It will increase the quality of the graduate experience through updated curriculums and exposure to cutting edge research projects in Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability. The Initiative focuses on training, retaining and graduating students underrepresented in these fields. It offers summer internships, training, career guidance, mentorships and travel support.