Stevens Institute of Technology
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

The Living Laboratory for Stormwater Green Infrastructure is strategically placed in three campus sites on the Stevens Institute of Technology campus. At the North building, there are 40 green roof tables, a rain garden and four bioretention planter boxes. The rain garden on Eighth Street and Hudson is intended to stop nuisance flooding generated by runoff from a roof. The ABS rain garden is intended to reduce the volume of runoff from the ABS building roof. These create different forms of urban bioretention solutions. The leading professor and her students are working with multiple entities to find green infrastructure solutions to the runoff problem in the local Hoboken area, where Stevens is located. Hoboken needs water management solutions that work in a highly developed urban location. That means putting small scale water retention systems everywhere, for a cost-effective solution to keep rainwater out of the sewer as opposed to building bigger treatment plants and sewer systems.

Dr. Fassman-Beck’s Living Laboratory for Stormwater Green Infrastructure (GI) is a research and demonstration site on the Stevens Institute of Technology campus. With 47 individual GI systems, custom-built from the ground up to measure real-world results, the Living Laboratory is dedicated to engineering GI solutions for urban stormwater challenges. The Living Laboratory’s current inventory includes 4 bioretention planters, 38 pilot-scale green roof systems (plus 2 “conventional” pilot-scale roofs), and 3 rain gardens, along with ~100 sensors. Generating quantitative hydrologic and water quality performance data to advance GI design, modeling, and policy is at the heart of the Living Laboratory. Multi-disciplinary efforts engage Software Engineers for Big Data manipulation and Stevens’ Center for Innovation in Engineering Science and Education to engage the next generation of sustainable development professionals via K-12 STEM education initiatives.

Stevens and the Living Laboratory is a Regional Center of Living Architecture Excellence, in partnership with the Green Infrastructure Foundation and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

The Stevens Sustainability Coalition (SSC) is a student-led initiative whose vision is to create a culture of sustainability on campus and in the local community. Both an organization and a movement, the SSC holds forums that promote open, transparent, and collaborative discussion among students, staff, faculty, and local community members on sustainability issues both on and off-campus. Events also include panels on environmental and social-environmental issues, held by subject matter experts, as well as innovation expos that challenge people to arrive at solutions to sustainability problems. The SSC has partnered with the City of Hoboken to provide technical and on-the-ground support for the City’s recycling education program. The City has changed from single to dual stream recycling which has been problematic because residents do not understand the difference. The SSC is working to design and implement a citizen education campaign and will enlist other Stevens student organizations that have a sustainability focus to assist with this outreach effort.

The Excellence Through Diversity Lecture Series introduces ideas and perspectives to increase understanding of the value of diversity and enhance the University's efforts toward inclusive excellence in STEM.

Free lectures have been provided in this series since September 2014. As of 2018 the events have been supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1311792.