Rising Gas Prices Hurting Commuter Students; New Research Center Coming to CEWIT

Gas prices on Long Island this week crossed the $4 mark, and commuter students at Stony Brook University are feeling the hit. 

"I think it's horrible. I have to drive out here at least twice a week, so I'm out $40 to $50 every week," said freshman Michelle Strano, 18, of Rocky Point, whose commute takes 40 minutes door-to-door.

The average price for a gallon of gas last week was $4.017 dollars and increasing, according to longislandgasprices.com. As of the fall of 2010, commuters make up about 60 percent of Stony Brook's total student population of 24,594. Although the SBU Commuter Student Association did not have any representatives available to comment, it's known around campus that commuters are driving less and staying on campus more.

"With my major, I can't work that much," said Chandan Malhotra, a 22-year-old computer engineering major who wasn't willing to say where he lived. "I stay at my friend's dorm sometimes so I don't have to drive."

The price of gas is also impacting the amount of activities commuter students do in their downtime.

"I'm paying $50 to fill my car, which is a small Saturn," said Michael Daniello, an 18-year-old from Holbrook with a forty-minute round-trip commute. "I have to drive more efficiently and can't drive for fun."

Spring Break on Campus

• Dining Halls: The Student Activities Center will be open, but will close early at 6 p.m. during the week.  The SB Union, Kelly Dining Hall, Roth Food Court, Campus Connection @ H-Quad and Tabler Cafe will be closed until Sunday, April 24. 
• Library Hours: The library will be closed on the weekend, but all sections will be open with reduced hours during the week. Monday to Friday they will be open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, and Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
• Bus Routes: Buses will be running on Service Level C during spring break.  On April 24, however, only the Railroad Route will be in operation. Check the SBU Transit website for specific times.
• Academic Offices: The Dean of Students office will be open and operating on regular hours during spring break; however, other academic office times will vary according to section, so check before making the trip.

National Science Foundation Awards Grant for New Research Center

Stony Brook has announced it has received a federal grant to create a new research center, housed at the Center for Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, in partnership with Rutgers University.

The new Center for Dynamic Data Analytics will address the challenges of data collection and analysis and incorporate its research into practices in industry, according to Arie E. Kaufman, the project's principal investigator and chief scientist at CEWIT.

“Our mission is to advance our knowledge on how to analyze and visualize massive, complex, multi-dimensional and multi-scale dynamic data,” Kaufman said. “The end result will be novel science, algorithms, systems and applications that transform chaos (due to the size of the data) into knowledge.”

The center will operate with more than $2 million over five years, and will involve corporate sponsors including CA Technologies, Northrop Grumman Corporation, SAP, Siemens, VJ Technologies, Future Tech, and more. It will incorporate research areas including computer science, cloud computing, security, biology, linguistics, and the environmental sciences. It will be designated an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center by the National Science Foundation and is also expected to create additional opportunities for students, such as research assistant and internship positions and classroom exposure.

"Our research will transform traditional research and significantly advance the computer science curriculum by improving the applications taught in our classes as well as having our industry partners lecture on the problems faced by industry,” Kaufman said.