Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Featured Stories
Yale School of Medicine: Answering a Century-Old Question - How Do Brain Oscillations Emerge?
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, Oct. 9 (TNSjou) -- The Yale University School of Medicine issued the following news:
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Answering a Century-Old Question: How do Brain Oscillations Emerge?
Key points
* Waves of synchronized, coordinated neuronal activity have been observed and studied in the brain for over a century.
* Gamma waves are altered in people with neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as neurodegenerative diseases.
* Yale researchers have now identified where gamma activity emerges and how it links to behavior.
* The findings could inform an interpretable
... Show Full Article
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, Oct. 9 (TNSjou) -- The Yale University School of Medicine issued the following news:
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Answering a Century-Old Question: How do Brain Oscillations Emerge?
Key points
* Waves of synchronized, coordinated neuronal activity have been observed and studied in the brain for over a century.
* Gamma waves are altered in people with neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as neurodegenerative diseases.
* Yale researchers have now identified where gamma activity emerges and how it links to behavior.
* The findings could inform an interpretableearly biomarker for Alzheimer's disease.
By Mallory Locklear, PhD
Waves of synchronized, coordinated neuronal activity have been observed and studied in the brain for over a century. But for the first time, Yale researchers have identified where a certain type--known as gamma activity--emerges and they have connected it to behavior.
By developing a new, much more precise approach for measuring this activity, the researchers have overcome the major challenges that have limited scientists' understanding of what role these waves play in processing information and initiating behavior.
The findings were published Oct. 8 in Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09604-9).
But Jessica Cardin, PhD, Gordon M. Shepherd Professor of Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study, had no intention of studying this type of brain activity. She worked on gamma waves as a postdoc, and through that work showed for the first time that you can artificially initiate these waves in the brain. But the problem was that what she refers to as "the perfect experiment" isn't really possible with these rhythms of activity.
The way to determine what something like gamma waves or, say, a gene or a particular protein, is doing in the brain, is to break it and see what happens. You silence that one gene and see how that affects behavior, for example.
"The problem is, and always has been, that for something like an oscillation or a pattern of activity, you really can't turn it off without affecting everything in the surrounding brain circuit," says Cardin, who is also a member of Yale's Wu Tsai Institute. "So when I started my own lab, I thought we'd never work in this area."
But then one of her postdocs--Quentin Perrenoud, PhD, first author of the study--showed her some intriguing data he had collected while trying to track the flow of information through the brain while a task was undertaken. It looked a lot like gamma waves might predict behavior. So they followed the science, and their findings upend the way scientists have thought about how these waves emerge in the brain.
"It's not quite a perfect experiment, but it's a lot closer to a perfect experiment than we've ever been able to get," says Cardin.
Gamma activity emerges from interactions between the thalamus and cortex
For the study, the researchers developed a new approach for measuring gamma waves. While it was once thought that these oscillations were continuous, looking much like a sound wave with an unbroken pattern of peaks and troughs, more recent research has found evidence that the oscillation isn't quite continuous but can come in small bursts.
Pursuing this idea, the researchers recorded brain activity in 16 different sites in the visual cortex--the part of the brain that processes sight--in order to get a much more detailed look at the spatial and timing aspects of gamma activity. Then they broke down that data into individual events, much like one peak-trough-peak cycle of a wave.
If the gamma activity really was an oscillation, then putting each of these individual events together should look like a continuous wave that's rolling through each of the spots where the researchers recorded.
"But it turned out that these events can happen together, or in little bursts, or all by themselves," says Cardin. "They're not happening in a long sequence."
This approach, which the researchers have named CBASS (Clustering Band-limited Activity by State and Spectrotemporal feature), offers a much greater level of sensitivity than other techniques for studying gamma activity.
"It allows us to get very fine timing and to clearly identify these short events, which means we can map them with great precision during interesting moments, like when an animal is making a decision," says Cardin. "That means we can map the events in the brain to the behavior of the animal with more precision than we've ever had before."
When it comes to where gamma activity arises, there have been two schools of thought. A lot of the available evidence has supported the idea that gamma activity is generated in the cortex. But some research has suggested the cortex inherits the activity from elsewhere in the brain--for example, from the thalamus, which sends a lot of sensory and motor information to the cortex.
"With this new method, our data suggest both are wrong, and that this activity arises due to an interaction between the thalamus and the cortex. Gamma arises dynamically as the thalamus sends input to the cortex, where it's then amplified" says Cardin.
Disrupting signals from the thalamus affects behavior
The precision of CBASS also gives the researchers that much-sought-after ability to break the system, to disrupt these patterns of activity in a way that doesn't affect the entire brain.
To do that, the researchers first trained mice on a visual task wherein the mice received a reward if they licked a waterspout only when a certain visual stimulus was shown. Then, the researchers disrupted the signals that the thalamus sent to the cortex, which, in turn, disrupted the gamma activity in the cortex.
This gamma disruption caused the mice to perform much worse on the visual task. So then the researchers took the opposite approach and artificially initiated gamma activity.
"We recorded gamma activity from mice who were detecting the visual stimulus and then played it back into the brain of other mice. And when we did that, it tricked the mice into thinking they had detected a stimulus," says Cardin.
Together, the findings indicate that gamma activity in the cortex supports the integration of visual information and is involved in the behavioral responses that emerge from that integration. And this is important information to have, as studies have shown that this type of activity is altered in people with neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as neurodegenerative diseases.
Cardin's lab is now looking into whether gamma activity in the cortex could be used as an early biomarker for conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Acetylcholine and norepinephrine, key signaling molecules in the thalamus and cortex, are tightly linked to cognition and lost in neurodegenerative diseases. These neuromodulatory signals are known to regulate the pattern of brain activity.
"We're starting to look at how neuromodulatory signals are associated with these gamma events and we'll apply our tools to better understand the sequence of things that go wrong in neurodegeneration," says Cardin. "This could lead to an interpretable early biomarker for Alzheimer's disease that is easily accessible in humans."
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Original text here: https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/answering-a-century-old-question-how-do-brain-oscillations-emerge/
Virginia Tech: Bridge Experience Program Reaches Key Milestone
BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Oct. 9 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
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Bridge Experience Program reaches key milestone
By Will Rizzo
This fall, more than half of the university's majors now have career-ready training as a requirement for graduation, fulfilling an institutional commitment to experiential learning.
"We know hands-on learning and the opportunity for our students to apply what they've learned outside the classroom is a strong predictor for success after they leave the university," said Jill Sible, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs. "It's also a great opportunity
... Show Full Article
BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Oct. 9 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
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Bridge Experience Program reaches key milestone
By Will Rizzo
This fall, more than half of the university's majors now have career-ready training as a requirement for graduation, fulfilling an institutional commitment to experiential learning.
"We know hands-on learning and the opportunity for our students to apply what they've learned outside the classroom is a strong predictor for success after they leave the university," said Jill Sible, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs. "It's also a great opportunityto explore their interests, refine their goals, and develop the connections that will allow them to take full advantage of their Virginia Tech education."
Thirty-seven degree programs from 13 departments are now included in the Bridge Experience Program. By the end of the next academic year, an estimated 4,000 students will participate in bridge experiences.
"The purpose of a bridge experience is to connect our students' experience in the classroom to their future career," said Keri Swaby, assistant vice provost for experiential education. "They're happening in every college and across disciplines, from the humanities to the natural sciences to engineering."
Qualifying bridge experiences can be research in a campus lab mentored by a faculty member. They can also be paid internships, co-ops with companies, study abroad programs, or service learning through local nonprofits.
"Just as important, this program helps our students think about the skills they've learned and be able to articulate them, which is really valuable when they apply to their first job after graduation," Swaby said.
The university launched the Bridge Experience Program in 2021 as part of its reaccreditation process, which requires creating a Quality Enhancement Program, a universitywide academic initiative to support students and improve learning outcomes.
The program committed that more than half of degrees would require career-based, experiential learning as a requirement for graduation by spring 2027. That goal was reached more than a year ahead of the deadline.
Removing barriers to participation
The program, with its continued growth, aligns with the Virginia Tech Advantage, a universitywide commitment to offer broad educational opportunities to undergraduate students from Virginia who have financial need.
"We know our students are having incredible learning experiences doing research, studying abroad, or in internships. But we also know there are barriers to these opportunities," said Swaby. "Part of the goal of the bridge program is to remove those barriers and offer these experiences to a broader range of undergraduates."
Participating departments offer sections of the 3900 course, a zero-credit, no-cost course that's built into their majors' requirement. The course creates space in a student's four-year academic plan without increasing tuition or time to graduation.
Career and Professional Development, also part of the restructured Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, supports internships, both on- and off-campus, that may qualify for the Bridge Experience Program.
Last year, the department partnered with 156 companies, offered through the Cooperative Education and Internship Program. Career and Professional Development also manages Campus internEXP, a hiring platform that connects students to on-campus internships.
The unit also administers the Ut Prosim Internship Support Fund, which provides grants for internships in Virginia that serve the public good. Students can receive up to $5,000 for tuition, transportation costs, housing and moving expenses, or required equipment.
During this year's spring semester and summer sessions, the program provided about $80,000 in financial support for students working throughout the commonwealth.
"We have known for a long time that internships and work-based learning are positively correlated with postgraduate success," said Matthew Cowley, associate vice provost at Career and Professional Development. "What is important is finding sustainable resources and strategies to ensure that those opportunities are available to all Virginia Tech students."
Planning for continued growth
This fall, the fifth cohort of faculty members are working with the Academy for Experiential Learning to implement the bridge program into their departments.
"Now that we've reached this benchmark, we're looking to continue to build the program with the ultimate goal of every degree program having meaningful experiential learning as part of their curriculum," said Sible. "We will continue to evaluate the experiences we offer, address the barriers, and expand the opportunities for our students."
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Original text here: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2025/10/BEP-GOAL-REACHED.html
UTEP Study Reveals How Financial Pressure Shapes NFL Officiating
EL PASO, Texas, Oct. 9 (TNSjou) -- The University of Texas's El Paso campus issued the following news release:
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UTEP Study Reveals How Financial Pressure Shapes NFL Officiating
Judges' and referee calls favored Kansas City Chiefs from 2015-2023
A new study from The University of Texas at El Paso has uncovered how financial incentives may subtly shape officiating decisions in one of America's most iconic institutions: the National Football League. By analyzing more than 13,000 penalty calls from 2015 to 2023, researchers found that postseason officiating has disproportionately favored the
... Show Full Article
EL PASO, Texas, Oct. 9 (TNSjou) -- The University of Texas's El Paso campus issued the following news release:
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UTEP Study Reveals How Financial Pressure Shapes NFL Officiating
Judges' and referee calls favored Kansas City Chiefs from 2015-2023
A new study from The University of Texas at El Paso has uncovered how financial incentives may subtly shape officiating decisions in one of America's most iconic institutions: the National Football League. By analyzing more than 13,000 penalty calls from 2015 to 2023, researchers found that postseason officiating has disproportionately favored thePatrick Mahomes-era Kansas City Chiefs, coinciding with their rise as one of the NFL's most marketable franchises.
Published in the journal Financial Review, the study provides one of the clearest empirical looks at how financial pressures can influence real-time rule enforcement, the UTEP research team said. Unlike traditional regulatory settings, NFL officiating -- which is carried out by referees and judges -- offers immediate and publicly visible decisions. This transparency offers a testbed for whether economic reliance on high-profile entities alters enforcement behavior -- a phenomenon known as regulatory capture.
"Our findings suggest that when the league's financial health is at stake, rule enforcement may subtly shift to protect market appeal," said Spencer Barnes Ph.D., assistant professor of finance in UTEP's Woody L. Hunt College of Business and the lead author of the study. "The fact that postseason penalties consistently favored one franchise, while similar dynasties showed no such pattern, points to the powerful role of financial incentives in shaping supposedly neutral decisions."
The study shows that during the playoffs, which the research team identified as the NFL's most commercially valuable period, penalties against opposing defenses of the Chiefs' offense were significantly more likely to result in first downs, cover more yardage and fall into subjective categories such as roughing the passer or pass interference. Importantly, these effects were absent for the Tom Brady-era New England Patriots and other recent Super Bowl contenders, suggesting the phenomenon is unique to Kansas City's emergence as a television ratings powerhouse.
This, Spencer explained, may be the result of financial pressures on the league stemming from the sharp decline in TV viewership and ratings during the politically charged 2015-2017 seasons, just before Patrick Mahomes became the Chiefs' starting quarterback.
The implications extend beyond football, the research team says. The study draws parallels to financial markets, corporate governance and regulatory agencies, where dominant players may enjoy advantages not because of explicit corruption, but because institutions under pressure adapt to preserve stability and revenue.
"This research not only deepens our understanding of sports governance, but also illustrates a larger societal concern: when financial pressure weighs heavily, impartiality can erode," said John Hadjimarcou, Ph.D., dean of UTEP's Woody L. Hunt College of Business. "Spencer's work demonstrates the power of academic inquiry to reveal hidden dynamics that affect fairness, competition and trust in institutions."
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Original text here: https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/2025/october/utep-study-reveals-how-financial-pressure-shapes-nfl-officiating.html
UT-Chattanooga: SEARCH Award Winners Discuss Challenges, Breakthroughs
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee, Oct. 9 -- The University of Tennessee Chattanooga Campus issued the following news:
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SEARCH Award winners discuss challenges, breakthroughs
By Carter Graham
A group of 21 undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga met on Friday, Sept. 26, for a welcome meeting to discuss their award-winning research projects.
Recipients of the Scholarship, Engagement, the Arts, Research, Creativities and Humanities (SEARCH) Awards--which are given to students across all disciplines to begin research under UTC faculty supervision--discussed
... Show Full Article
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee, Oct. 9 -- The University of Tennessee Chattanooga Campus issued the following news:
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SEARCH Award winners discuss challenges, breakthroughs
By Carter Graham
A group of 21 undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga met on Friday, Sept. 26, for a welcome meeting to discuss their award-winning research projects.
Recipients of the Scholarship, Engagement, the Arts, Research, Creativities and Humanities (SEARCH) Awards--which are given to students across all disciplines to begin research under UTC faculty supervision--discussedwhere they are in the research process.
The scholarships are provided through the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor (URaCE).
According to URaCE Executive Director Lisa Piazza, the SEARCH Award is open to all UTC undergraduate and graduate students. Recipients receive a $1,000 prize, "and students get to use that money to support the projects that you hear about here."
With a variety of topics covered in the research projects, ranging from "Composing The Self: Investigating the Meaning in Narratives of Authenticity and Self-Transformation" to "Coffee-Derived Carbon Quantum Dots for Biofuel Enhancement: A Green Approach to Combustion Efficiency," Piazza described this as an opportunity to build connections with individuals going through the same process in similar or different fields.
Many of the students could even be facing similar issues while conducting their research.
Research is built on trial and error, Piazza explained. These could occur in or outside the lab setting. For some students, the process may be challenging to find suitable subjects for interviews or to deal with lab constraints.
With students discussing some of the challenges they currently face or expect to encounter in the future, the meeting provided a community of people willing to hear about their current research progress.
Piazza added that the purpose of these introductory meetings is to show support for many students who are conducting research for the first time.
"These students were granted awards in early summer," she said. "Some are at the very beginning stages, and they may not finish until February or March of next year. Some students are making some really good progress--and they're going to finish a little earlier--but they're all at different phases. That's kind of how research works depending on the project.
"That's why we talked about failures, challenges, things that maybe popped up that were unexpected when you started. That's a really important part of research. Failure is part of the process, and if you can get comfortable with that and turn it around and transform failure into success, you're going to be great at anything that you do in life."
Piazza provided the students with helpful information, including contact details for questions and a designated place for any concerns or further clarifications.
"We have a really diverse group of projects and disciplines, and just a variety in terms of the types of research," she explained. "In some cases, this might be the only funding that students get, so it's really, really important to be able to support initiatives like this and hopefully continue to grow them."
For students interested in pursuing their education post-undergraduate degree, Piazza said that applying to the SEARCH Awards would be beneficial.
"Many of the undergrads are basically training to be successful grad students when you do research at the undergrad level," she said.
Applications for next year's SEARCH Awards are now available and close on March 8, 2026.
Piazza explained that the benefits of these opportunities extend beyond the classroom.
"It's all career skills," she said. "Research skills are career skills and that's why it's really important to be able to provide these opportunities."
2025-26 SEARCH Award recipients (student/faculty advisor/project title)
Merna Abdrabo ... Dr. Hamdy Ibrahim ... Acoustic Mixing Process Optimization for Strengthened Magnesium-Based Nanocomposite
Menekse Adar ... Dr. Serkan Varol ... Exploring Emotional States and Gaze Behavior in Digital Learning Platforms: A Multimodal EEG and Eye-Tracking Approach
Claire Beach ... Dr. Bret Eschman ... Attentional Control after Childhood Adversity: Evaluating Temperament as a Protective Factor
Taylor Claxton ... Dr. Ruth Walker ... Exploring the Experiences of Male Victims of Intimate Partner Violence When Seeking an Order of Protection
Gracie Crooks ... Dr. Ayca Cetinkaya ... Least-Squares Solution and Optimization in Ill-Conditioned Linear Systems
Hannah Daugherty ... Dr. Ricardo Wilhelm ... Decoding Belief: Neural Mechanisms of Conspiracy Message Evaluations
Samantha Dean ... Dr. Amanda Clark ... Anxiety or Advantage? Detecting Malingered Symptoms in College Students Seeking Academic Accommodations
Katelyn Hamilton ... Dr. Venkateswara Kode ... Coffee-Derived Carbon Quantum Dots for Biofuel Enhancement: A Green Approach to Combustion Efficiency
Aidan Harrison ... Dr. Jared Pienkos ... Exploiting the N-oxide functional group to create imaging agents
Elizabeth Hendricksen ... Dr. Jannatul Ferdoush ... Elucidation of overexpression of Transcription factor, TAF7 in Eukaryotic Cell
Luke Hicks ... Dr. Jill Shelton ... Investigating the Pursuit of Prosocial Goals among Neurodivergent Individuals: A Prospective Memory Study
Taylor Lange ... Dr. Ruth Walker ... Expanding Our Conceptualization of Transformative Justice Practices for Survivors of the Commercial Sex Industry
Lennon Learn-Houston ... Dr. John Lee ... Design of New Anti-Cancer Ruthenium - Based Molecular Squares
Izabella LeBlanc ... Dr. David Ross ... Perceived Justice-System Support of Victims and Attitudes on Justice
Elizabeth Minneci ... Dr. Ruth Walker ... The Culture of the Convent: Recruitment, Retention, and Talent Development for Catholic Nuns in America
Julia Perry ... Dr. Cindy Poole ... Emotional Intelligence through Music Creation in Children: A Case Study
Matthew Pruitt ... Dr. Reetesh Ranjan ... Effects of Multi-component Surrogates on the Dynamics of Non-Reacting Diesel Fuel Spray
Dexter Rowland ... Dr. Pratibha Deepak ... The Role of Individual-Level Cultural Tightness-Looseness in Reward Preferences and Organizational Outcomes
Joseph Rush ... Dr. Jared Pienkos ... Synthesis of Iridium Based Imaging Agents
Matthew Schaublin ... Dr. Jill Shelton ... Composing The Self: Investigating the Meaning in Narratives of Authenticity and Self-Transformation
Rachel Teti ... Dr. Anna Kiel ... Exploring the Relationship Between Physical Activity, Cognitive Function, and Balance in Assisted Living Facility Residents
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Original text here: https://blog.utc.edu/news/2025/10/search-award-winners-discuss-challenges-breakthroughs/
UPenn School of Arts & Sciences: Bridging Philosophy and Politics
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, Oct. 9 -- The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences issued the following news:
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Bridging philosophy and politics
What does it mean for everyone to have a say in a democracy? This summer, philosopher Daniel Wodak and undergraduate Jasmine Ni, explored the contradictions and questions raised by political equity.
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The "one person one vote" idea is popular across countries like the United States, meant to capture an individual right to political equality, according to associate professor of philosophy Daniel Wodak at the School of Arts & Sciences.
... Show Full Article
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, Oct. 9 -- The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences issued the following news:
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Bridging philosophy and politics
What does it mean for everyone to have a say in a democracy? This summer, philosopher Daniel Wodak and undergraduate Jasmine Ni, explored the contradictions and questions raised by political equity.
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The "one person one vote" idea is popular across countries like the United States, meant to capture an individual right to political equality, according to associate professor of philosophy Daniel Wodak at the School of Arts & Sciences.But peel back the layers and the concept becomes more complicated, something Wodak and undergraduate Jasmine Ni spent their summer exploring.
"The idea is that in a political system like we have in the United States, each person has a single vote and that's how they influence democratic processes," says Ni, who is double-majoring in English and political science. "In reality, if you take those four words--'one person, one vote'--and break down what they mean, you run into a lot of questions and contradictions."
Wodak, who is working on a book about the "one person, one vote" principle, brought Ni on through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program run through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. With a limited timeframe of 10 weeks, her focus was on two specific practices, both relating to "apportionment," or the way voters are divided into electoral districts.
One centered around partisan gerrymandering, or how lawmakers redraw electoral district borders to improve their own party's odds of victory. The other concerned the idea that an area's total population--not just the citizen population of voting age--should be used to draw legislative districts, something the Supreme Court upheld in the 2016 case Evenwel v. Abbott.
Wodak says the idea of prioritizing total population doesn't get as much airtime as partisan gerrymandering, but that both apportionment approaches raise questions about whether every individual does indeed get an equal say in an election. "In the U.S., states draw legislative maps to equalize the number of residents per district," he says. "But is this the population group that they should use?"
To investigate how different scholars, judges, and policymakers have answered those questions, Ni poured through academic texts and court decisions. Often, she found the "one person, one vote" idea invoked but not actively explored. Wodak says he's not surprised to see the phrase pop up without real consideration for its deeper meaning. Though it has "a very special place in political thought," he says, it can be "surprisingly opaque."
Exploring its applications has meant bridging the worlds of political science and philosophy, as well as "the line between theory and practice," Ni says. "This research takes a concept that really impacts our lives and breaks it down so that it makes sense."
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Original text here: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-sas-bridging-philosophy-and-politics
SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Expansion of ASAP|ACE to More Than 7,000 Students at 34 SUNY Campuses
ALBANY, New York, Oct. 9 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release:
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SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Expansion of ASAP|ACE to More than 7,000 Students at 34 SUNY Campuses
Expansion of Program to 34 Campuses, Including Farmingdale State College, Puts SUNY ASAP|ACE on the Path to Reach 10,000 Enrolled Students by Fall 2026
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Farmingdale, NY -- State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today celebrated the expansion of Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) and Advancing Completion through Engagement (ACE) - the nation's leading college
... Show Full Article
ALBANY, New York, Oct. 9 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release:
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SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Expansion of ASAP|ACE to More than 7,000 Students at 34 SUNY Campuses
Expansion of Program to 34 Campuses, Including Farmingdale State College, Puts SUNY ASAP|ACE on the Path to Reach 10,000 Enrolled Students by Fall 2026
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Farmingdale, NY -- State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today celebrated the expansion of Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) and Advancing Completion through Engagement (ACE) - the nation's leading collegeretention and completion initiatives - during a visit to Farmingdale State College. The initiative helps students gain and maintain academic momentum so they can graduate on time.
"SUNY is committed to supporting student success, and the continued expansion of our ASAP|ACE program ensures SUNY students can get important support and services to help them complete their degree on time," SUNY Chancellor King said. "ASAP|ACE is a proven, evidence-based strategy to improve student retention and completion, and thanks to Governor Hochul's leadership, I am thrilled to see this model expand across the SUNY system. We will continue our efforts to support more SUNY campuses to implement ASAP|ACE to take full advantage of this program."
The SUNY Board of Trustees said, "Thanks to the steadfast support of Governor Hochul and the State Legislature, SUNY's ASAP|ACE program has been able to expand to serve more campuses and support thousands of students working to achieve a degree. We want every SUNY student to succeed on campus, and thanks to the expansion of the successful ASAP|ACE model, we continue to advance our efforts to achieve that goal."
SUNY brought ASAP|ACE to 25 campuses in Spring 2024 thanks to Governor Hochul's SUNY Transformation Fund. By Fall 2024, the campuses were serving 4,270 students. In June 2025, Governor Hochul announced the expansion of SUNY ASAP|ACE to more than 7,000 students at 34 SUNY campuses in Fall 2025. Nine SUNY campuses joined ASAP|ACE at the start of the Fall 2025 school year, and 14 currently participating campuses added spots to serve more students. This expansion was made possible through $12 million in allocated funding from the FY2025-2026 State Budget that places SUNY ASAP|ACE on the path to reach 10,000 students by Fall 2026. Robin Hood has also provided $1.5 million to support an additional 375 New York City residents who join a partner ASAP|ACE campus.
At Farmingdale State College, the campus program is in its second year. Chancellor King visited today to meet with the students, faculty, staff, and elected officials that have made the program a success. Since its inception, Farmingdale State College's ACE program has grown from 215 students to 230 this year, with the campus program on the path to serving 250 students by Spring 2026.
Farmingdale State College President Robert S. Prezant said, "Farmingdale has a robust portfolio of academic support programs, and we are proud to be among the SUNY campuses to participate in ACE. The ACE Program at Farmingdale homes in on three key indicators of success, retention, persistence, and graduation rates. Our ACE students become a part of a welcoming and inclusive community, where they meet success through the support of our talented and dedicated staff, a team that has developed a compassionate network of support to help our students thrive."
The Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) supports students pursuing associate degrees, while Advancing Completion through Engagement (ACE) supports baccalaureate students. Eligible students have access to a wide array of resources and support to help them overcome barriers that can prevent them from obtaining a degree. This includes funding to cover textbooks, groceries, transportation, and other costs of attendance, as well as comprehensive personalized advisement, academic support, and career development activities. See here for more information: https://www.suny.edu/asap-ace/.
Early findings already show that ASAP|ACE students attempt more credits, earn more credits, and re-enroll at higher rates than matched comparison group students.
ASAP students are earning up to two more credits in their first semester and have a 17 percentage-point increase in retention from their first to second term and a 15 percentage-point increase in one-year retention compared to matched comparison group students.
ACE students are also showing strong outcomes. Their credit completion rates are as high as 90 percent, and they are retained at rates 6 to 8 points higher than matched comparison group students.
New York State Senator Monica R. Martinez said, "The ASAP and ACE programs give students the support they need to stay on track, graduate on time, and start the next chapter of their lives sooner. At Farmingdale State College, this initiative is helping more students complete their degrees and move confidently into their futures. I am grateful to Governor Hochul and my colleagues in the Legislature for funding the expansion of these programs and giving SUNY the resources to help students succeed."
New York State Assemblymember Kwani O'Pharrow said, "The expansion of SUNY's ASAP|ACE program is a vital investment in student success and workforce development in New York State. By offering essential academic and financial support, it enables more students to complete their degrees on time and pursue meaningful careers. I commend Chancellor King, Governor Hochul, and Farmingdale State College for their leadership in enhancing access to higher education for all students."
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About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country's oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.16 billion in fiscal year 2024, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Original text here: https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/10-25/10-8-25-2/asap-ace.html
CMU Researchers Develop Customizable Finger Brace for Injury Recovery
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, Oct. 9 -- Carnegie Mellon University issued the following news:
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CMU Researchers Develop Customizable Finger Brace for Injury Recovery
Key Takeaways
* CMU researchers created the first-ever 3D-printed finger brace that easily shifts from rigid to flexible, eliminating the need to take it off and on.
* The customizable brace supports a patient's rehabilitation by giving them mobility or stability, depending on their needs.
* Researchers used finger dimensions and strength to simulate a custom brace that can be 3D-printed and worn immediately -- no assembly required.
By:
... Show Full Article
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, Oct. 9 -- Carnegie Mellon University issued the following news:
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CMU Researchers Develop Customizable Finger Brace for Injury Recovery
Key Takeaways
* CMU researchers created the first-ever 3D-printed finger brace that easily shifts from rigid to flexible, eliminating the need to take it off and on.
* The customizable brace supports a patient's rehabilitation by giving them mobility or stability, depending on their needs.
* Researchers used finger dimensions and strength to simulate a custom brace that can be 3D-printed and worn immediately -- no assembly required.
By:Marylee Williams
A friend's struggles with arthritis and the finger braces used to manage it inspired research by a Carnegie Mellon University student that could make it easier for patients to follow rehabilitation plans, speed up recovery times and help people manage chronic conditions.
Yuyu Lin, a Ph.D. student in the School of Computer Science's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), worked alongside her friend during an internship and noticed she had to remove the finger braces she wore to relieve arthritis in her knuckles when she used a computer. She couldn't bend her fingers with the braces, but she needed the braces to treat her condition.
Lin wondered if she could make a finger brace that could easily toggle between stiff and flexible -- without removal -- to help people facing similar challenges.
With her colleagues in the Interactive Structures Lab (ISL), Lin did just that. The team developed a fully customizable finger brace that can, with the push or flex of a finger, easily switch from stiff to flexible. Along with its versatility, the brace can be 3D printed and requires no assembly.
"For this work, we were trying to think from the perspective of the patient, and how to get them to wear this brace and complete their rehabilitation routine more easily," Lin said.
Researchers designed the brace as two rigid pieces connected by an elastic band. The band can easily be released when a patient pushes down on the brace and curls or bends their finger to a certain point, allowing easy movement of the finger. When the patient extends their finger, pushing it up, the elastic band snaps back into place through a similar process and the finger becomes immobilized. Think of a snap bracelet -- it's rigid until it's bent to a certain point, then it curls around the wrist.
Researchers worked with medical professionals and identified the tendons on the second knuckle of the hand where the brace could be useful. This area, known as the proximal interphalangeal joint, can be challenging to treat because post-injury stiffness can occur without adequate early mobilization.
Current finger orthoses are often static, leaving the digit immobile, and doctors usually ask that the patient remove the brace for rehabilitation exercises. Patients struggle to maintain the balance between immobility and movement, and researchers realized they needed a simple, pain-free solution to this problem. The answer was allowing the finger to move without removing the brace.
"We wanted to understand how we could help people, and what patients needed right now," said Alexandra Ion, an assistant professor in the HCII and director of the Interactive Structures Lab. "We wanted to add our expertise to build this new, unexpected thing."
The brace is customizable as well as flexible. In this initial work, the ISL researchers envision customization through software, allowing patients to easily generate a custom brace and either 3D print it themselves or have the completed device sent to them, ready to wear.
The patient needs to collect certain dimensions to customize their brace: their finger dimensions, which can be measured with a ruler; finger strength, which is measured with a force gauge; and their finger's extension angle, which can be measured with a protractor. Using these metrics, a computational design tool simulates a version of the brace. This step determines how much force, or torque, is required to safely switch the device from stiff to flexible. Based on the simulation, the tool generates a 3D design, allowing the patient to tweak it before printing.
Lin plans to continue developing braces and inventing adaptive devices that can be easily and comfortably worn for more users with limited mobility.
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Original text here: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2025/october/cmu-researchers-develop-customizable-finger-brace-for-injury-recovery
