Chassapis and team awarded $3 million GK-12 grant from NSF for multiscale research

Research in multiscale engineered systems will be combined with innovative approaches to doctoral education

HOBOKEN, N.J. ¯ Through its GK-12 program, the graduate education division of the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant of $3,000,000 to a multidisciplinary research team at Stevens Institute of Technology, under the leadership of Professor Constantin Chassapis, Director of the Mechanical Engineering Department. In addition to Chassapis, who serves as the Principal Investigator, the team includes Associate Professor Sven Esche and Assistant Professor Frank Fisher from the Mechanical Engineering Department; Research Assistant Professor Rustam Stolkin from the Environmental and Ocean Engineering Department; as well as Elisabeth McGrath, Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE). Associate Professor Thomas Lechler from the School of Technology Management will also be involved.

Over a period of five years, this project will provide fellowships to ten Stevens doctoral students per year (nine during the first year) who will conduct research in the area of multiscale engineered systems. Working closely with high school teachers, the students will disseminate their research results to several participating high schools within the framework of the New Jersey Alliance for Engineering Education (NJAEE). The Alliance brings a diverse set of high schools throughout New Jersey together with faculty, researchers, and graduate students from Stevens Institute of Technology, and educators at Montclair State University, the University of California-Berkeley, Lawrence Hall of Science, and Bergen Community College.

“This Alliance will have a major impact on how we prepare and train the next generation of technology leaders, necessary for the US to maintain its leadership-role in emerging areas of technology in a global economy, while strengthening partnerships to better recruit and retain disadvantaged and under-represented minorities in the engineering pipeline,” said Stevens Provost & University Vice President George P. Korfiatis. “It is totally appropriate that Stevens be recognized as a leader in these efforts, as we have implemented innovative science, engineering and mathematics curricula in primary and secondary classrooms with great success for several decades.”