TCNJ

14 OUTDOOR STEM LAB The Center for Excellence in STEM Education continues to take the lead in developing exceptional STEM programming for elementary and secondary schools throughout the region. This year, the center partnered with the school district of Philadelphia and the William Penn Foundation on an innovative project to bring an interactive outdoor STEM learning laboratory to the city's Chester A. Arthur elementary school. The project features four interactive outdoor learning laboratories, each of which is designed around a theme. These include a habitat lab where students will learn about the role of pollinators in the food system, an ecological systems lab, a motion and propulsion lab that includes a 50-meter track and sundial, and an energy lab where students will manage a raised-bed urban garden. Center staff were instrumental in the design of the learning center, and additionally developed comprehensive STEM curricula for teachers at the school. STATE TO FUND ARMSTRONG UPGRADE In late June, Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle Hendricks recommended that TCNJ be awarded an $8 million capital improvement grant to be used to renovate Armstrong Hall. Built in 1961 this 71,647 square-foot building anchors the western end of the college's STEM Complex and is home to the departments of civil engineering, technological studies, and electrical and computer engineering. The renovation will provide critically needed lab and program spaces not accommodated by the new STEM building that is currently under construction and remedy deficiencies that exist within the current structure. In particular, it will address the critical need for space for the civil engineering program, which has grown in the last seven years. Highlights of the project include: • Refurbishment of research labs for the three academic departments that occupy the building. • Renewal of the advanced power lab, microwave/radio frequency lab, robotics lab, structures lab, and transportation lab, as well as teaching and computer labs. • Restoration of the ventilation and environmental control systems in the civil engineering laboratories to allow for teaching and research related to curing concrete, and working with soils and asphalt. • Replacement of ventilation to allow for advanced prototyping equipment. SURVIVING THE JOURNEY TO MARS If astronauts ever land on Mars, a group of TCNJ students may be among the list of those to thank for making it possible. Working alongside Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Anthony Lau as part of a NASA- funded Space Grant, Steven Ayala '17, Phillip Binaco '18, Alexander Borg '17, Danielle Howe '17, and Dale Johnson '18 researched the effect of radiation caused by solar flares—a very real threat to astronauts as the duration of manned missions increases—on kidney functioning and bone health. Their research, which will continue throughout the upcoming academic year, took them to Johns Hopkins University, a collaborator on the grant, the National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as part of their MUSE programming this summer. . SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING BAJA THEN AND NOW Members of the award-winning 1991 School of Engineering national SAE Baja competition team came back to campus this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their huge win. e team, including a student named Regina Cadillac, brought home a first-place trophy from the competition, which pits student- designed, dune-buggyesque vehicles against each other.

• Cover