Author: nyct

At an age when most girls are totally into playing with dolls, Monika Nowak knew she wanted to become an architect. “I realized that there were more than just pretty pictures behind all the beautiful houses,” she says.

“In addition to the design, I was very interested in all the technical aspects of a building,” she continues. “My desire was to learn about all aspects of building construction, including design, construction management and the technology involved.”

Fast forward a couple of decades. Nowak, now a sophomore majoring in architectural technology at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), is one of seven students, out of 93 applicants from throughout New York State, to win the coveted 2009-2010 Vanguard Award, sponsored by the Career Options Institute.

The award recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding secondary and post-secondary students, both male and female, who are enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs that are not traditional to their gender.

In Nowak’s case, architecture, still a male-dominated field, hooked her because “without knowledge of the technical aspects of a building, we are unable to achieve successful design.”

But Nowak’s path toward City Tech’s architectural technology curriculum was neither smooth nor easy. A native of Poland, Nowak grew up in the city of Plock on the Vistula River, about 68 miles from Warsaw. She came to the U.S. for the first time at age 18 to visit her maternal grandmother who lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This was just a vacation and she returned to Poland.

But in 2000, when she was 25, she visited again. This time she decided to stay, even though her family, which included her parents and sister, were all living in Poland. The decision to leave them was daunting, but she found motivation for her decision in the “big differences between living in the U.S. and Poland.” Most specifically, she appreciated “the cultural diversity and openness” the U.S. offered. She also found Americans to be very helpful, positive and optimistic.

Once here, Nowak supported herself as a babysitter for a Polish family and as a personal assistant for an American businesswoman. She also worked for a construction company and said of it, “I liked this job so much that I knew it was time to advance.” So, encouraged by her employer, she enrolled in some English classes at Teachers College, Columbia University, and also took accounting courses at City College.

She was now at a crossroads. Should she go to college?  For a while she was helping her sister to pay for her schooling back in Poland. And when her sister completed her education, Nowak thought, “It is time to do something good for myself. I knew I could not advance and expand my knowledge and skills without going to college, especially since I was not going back to Poland.”

Today, at 35, Nowak lives with her husband in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, holds down a full-time job as an assistant project manager at Milrose Consultants, a Manhattan expediter of documents and drawings for compliance with building code and zoning requirements, and has accrued 61 credits toward the bachelor of technology degree in architectural technology.

Since beginning her journey toward her degree, Nowak’s family, especially her husband’s parents, has been her greatest support. As she puts it, “Everyone is very proud of me, which gives me motivation to go for what I like best.” And Lia Dikigoropoulou, her architectural technology professor, describes her as “one of the top students in our department. She is extremely focused, mature, dedicated, and performs very well.”

With an eye toward the future, Nowak realizes that she has to be “familiar with the newest materials and design trends, including sustainability design as this will have a big impact on the environment.”  She knows that a design project encompasses “more than just blueprints and drawings. It must also include specifications for materials, scheduling and means and methods of construction to assure the safety of the building.”

Looking ahead, Nowak would like to work as an architect with a company that specializes in the restoration and renovation of existing New York City landmark buildings. She notes that this “would be the best way to use my technical and design skills.”

In speaking about her architectural technology classes at City Tech, Nowak praises her professors as being a “big part of this [learning] process,” with many of them providing “great inspiration for my design projects.”

Nowak knows that “in architecture we have to wear many hats, like in real life. I think women can handle this juggling of responsibilities best as we often have to shift our priorities between family and career to make sure we keep both under control.”

In addressing her choice of a nontraditional career as a female in architecture, she explains that “nontraditional choices are important for the 21st century workplace as changes in society and gender roles are shifting.“ She emphasizes that “we should be allowed to do the job we like,” and continues, “People have different characters and skills, and thus can perform different types of work that are not necessarily gender specific.”

Based on her very positive experience, she advises other students considering nontraditional careers to “pursue your dream and choose a career you will be happy with.”  And in referring to the City Tech architectural technology program, she acknowledges that “this program opens so many possibilities for future work in the architect’s office, building management and even in the construction field office.”  She concludes, “There is always space to grow; especially with the technology advancements that can help us to develop our skills.”

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest public college of technology in New York State. Located at 300 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the College enrolls 15,400 students in 60 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs.

A humorous and magical landscape of cross-cultural interactions, misunderstandings and revelations is at the heart of “Ex.Pgirl’s Paris Syndrome,” a dance theatre piece that will be performed as a work in progress at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), Voorhees Theatre, 186 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, from March 18 to 20. The suggested donation for admission is $5.

Produced by City Tech’s Department of Entertainment Technology in collaboration with its Theatreworks resident theatrical troupe and with Ex.Pgirl, the performances will take place Thursday, March 18, 8 p.m.; Friday, March 19, 8 p.m.; and Saturday, March 20, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The show is a dance theatre piece about a Japanese phenomenon that occurs when tourists visit Paris and experience a psychological meltdown because Paris, the “City of Love,” does not match their idealized expectations of beauty. The only permanent cure is to go back to Japan — and never return to Paris.

Ex.Pgirl’s “Paris Syndrome” is a humorous investigation of the parallels between culture shock, magical places we long for and disappointment. Through language games, spoken scenes, dance and video interviews, a multicultural ensemble of female performers will explore the themes of madness, ideals and cultural misunderstanding.

The Ex.Pgirl (www.expgirl.net) mission is to offer a cutting-edge forum for female performers of diverse backgrounds to create original interdisciplinary work that redefines cultural identity in today’s globalized community. Dedicated to a collaborative development process, Ex.Pgirl uses satire and parody as well as powerful visual imagery in its work.

City Tech’s Department of Entertainment Technology educates students for careers backstage at concerts, corporate and special events, cruise ships, film/television productions, sports venues, theatres, theme parks and trade shows. The department is structured to accommodate full- and part-time students of all ages, and accepts beginners looking to break into the industry as well as seasoned pros and IATSE Union members who would like to update their skills. Information: www.entertainmenttechnology.org.

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest public college of technology in New York State. Located at 300 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the College enrolls 15,400 students in 60 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs. An additional 15,000 enroll in continuing education and workforce development programs.

Brooklyn, NY — February 5, 2010 — The government of Ukraine recently named New York City College of Technology’s (City Tech) Vladimir Akulov a National Laureate in Science and Technology.

Dr. Akulov, an adjunct professor of physics at City Tech since 2005, accepted the Ukrainian State Prize from President Viktor Yuschenko. The Ukraine leader thanked the team of ten laureates for their  “selfless creative and scientific work, their contribution to Ukranian science and the strengthening of the technical capacities of the state.”

The honor was bestowed on Dr. Akulov and his former colleagues for research work on  supersymmetry and supergravity and their applications to the unified theory of fundamental interactions of elementary particles.

Akulov was the only American to be named a laureate. He began his research while teaching at Kharkov’s Institute of Physics and Technology (Kharkov, Ukraine) from 1968 until he emigrated to the U.S. in 1997.

“Dr. Akulov is one of the pioneers of supersymmetry,” explained Dr. Roman Kezerashvili, chair of the physics department at City Tech, “which, for 30 years has dominated theoretical high energy physics and is one of the real milestones in the field. His research in nonlinear realization supersymmetry (the Volkov-Akulov model) as well as in supersymmetric quantum mechanics are universally recognized by particle physicists.”
Supersymmetry, in which for every particle there is a superpartner, is a necessary ingredient in string theory, which scientists hope will unlock one of the biggest mysteries of the universe — how gravity and quantum physics fit together.

Dr. Akulov is also well known as the co-editor of the book Supersymmetry and Quantum Field Theory (Springer-Verlag, 1998). His current research activities are mainly devoted to the study of the brane dynamics, differential non-commutative geometry and extended supersymmetric quantum mechanics.

According to Dr. Kezerashvili, “The Ukrainian National Prize is the highest achievement and the most noteworthy professional recognition ever given to a faculty member in the physics department at City Tech.”

Dr. Akulov teaches algebra- and calculus-based physics lecture and lab courses at City Tech. He resides with his family in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn.

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York is the largest public college of technology in New York State. The College, located at 300 Jay Street, Downtown Brooklyn, enrolls 15,400 students in 60 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs.

When Professor Jean Claude lived in Florida, he experienced hurricanes. “But I never thought I would be in an earthquake,” he says. He was proven wrong when, visiting his family in Haiti during the break between semesters, he was right there when the disaster hit.

Two or three minutes before the earthquake, Professor Claude and a friend had left his sister’s house in Carrefour, Haiti, which was just 15-20 miles from the epicenter. They were on the road, driving to town, when they felt the earth shake and the vehicle jolt from side to side. “My friend thought it was a shooting, but I knew it was an earthquake,” he says.

In front of them, all they could see was a plume of dust coming from downtown Port-au-Prince. “We turned back and heard voices screaming, ‘Where’s my husband, where’s my kids’,” he relates.

Miraculously, all the houses on his sister’s block were still standing, not one of them destroyed. “My whole family was safe, including my other sister, who is a nun. Her convent was flattened but she’s okay. My father lives in the southern tip of the country, eight hours away, and that area wasn’t affected.”

For the next three days, Claude stayed put, sleeping in the car. “We slept on the street because an aftershock could have demolished the house. We just used the house to shower,” he relates. “The street was blocked to traffic to head off vigilantes in the neighborhood. You had to show that you had business on the block to enter.”

Claude was glad he was with his family during this time, but he couldn’t get in touch with his wife to let her know he was okay. “The day after the earthquake, my brother-in-law who lives in DC got through on the phone and I asked him to let her know we had survived.”

On the third day, Claude left town to drive to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where he would have a better chance to fly back home. It was then that he saw the full extent of the devastation. “There is no way to describe it except to say it was terrifying to see all the flattened land. The houses that were destroyed probably won’t get rebuilt. Most of the owners constructed their houses one concrete block at a time and had no insurance.”

Big changes are in store for Claude’s family in Haiti. One sister and her two children will join her husband in Maryland so the children will be able to go to school. His sister, who is a nun, will go south to attend to her (and Claude’s) elderly father. The sister Claude was staying with during the earthquake works for the United Nations. She and her son will stay in their home.

“The Haitian people are resilient and the country can recover” Claude notes. “It’s unfortunate that the disaster happened when it did because progress was being made. Hopefully, the international community will not desert Haiti.”

When asked which charity he recommended supporting, he says, without hesitation, “The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (clintonbushhaitifund.org/). Clinton understands the country and is very dedicated to the Haitian people. The money raised will be used appropriately.”

Editor’s Note: Adjunct Professor Maisel (advertising design and graphic arts), who is teaching a Digital Photography in Design class at City Tech this spring, was part of two teams who went to Haiti for the New York Daily News. He worked with a reporter during his one-week stay, arriving two days after the earthquake. A version of this piece will appear in News Photographer, the National Press Photographers Association magazine. Photo credit for all photos accompanying this article: Todd Maisel/New York Daily News.

Smoke wafted through the streets as I drove with three other photographers through the crumbled alleys of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on this the third day since the massive earthquake on Tuesday, January 12.

We came upon a secondary school and the smell of dead bodies – an odor bringing to mind spoiled pickle relish — filled the air. The bodies of young students and their teachers jutted visibly from openings in the building. They appeared to have been trying to escape the mayhem of the massive 7.3-magnitude earthquake.

Charlie Eckert of New York Newsday, freelancer Rob Stolarik and photographer Tequila Minsky and I climbed the hulk of clusters of crumbled concrete and took pictures. The further we climbed, the more bodies we found. They were arrayed among spiked rebar (steel rods used for reinforcing concrete), which in a cruel twist had caused concrete to turn to gravel.

It was yet another place where the dead remained in public view. Only hours before, I’d seen dozens of bodies with mothers clinging to their children, having died in a collapse of a large church where they were attending a funeral. They joined that loved one in a very sudden, terrifying death.

We drove further and found a major cultural and art center called Centre D’Art. The front of it was torn to the ground and a treasure trove of paintings, the heart of Haitian culture, hung on a precarious precipice. Art was low on the rescue list.

A few streets away, we came upon a group of trucks with Israeli flags on them and realized that members of the Israeli Defense Force and the Hatzalah ambulance paramedics had found a tax official clinging to life inside a corpse-filled assessment office. The squared courtyard edifice suffered a catastrophic collapse, causing office walls and furniture to tumble into the walled-in square and its outer walls to plunge into the street.

The Israelis had gathered at the top of the pile, working more than eight sweat-filled hours after having heard the garbled moans of Frantz Gilles, still in the rubble of what was his brightly lit downtown office. Photographers from the New York Post, Jerusalem Times and Israeli television began showing up. At first, the Israelis were not enthusiastic about their rescue being publicized because of mistrust of the media. But it became clear to them that Israelis can use all the good publicity they can get. They ended up letting us stand at the foot of the three-story fragile pile of office debris.

As we jockeyed for best view, the rescuers yanked the man, with an I.V. still in his arm, out of the rubble, his hand sticking up in the air briefly. Paramedics worked to stabilize him and the rescuers strapped him down for the tricky trek down the side of the field of debris. An ambulance waited outside the courtyard and the proud Israelis, all smiles from their many hours of toil, brought him into the street to the cheers and clapping of smiling Haitians. A woman raised her arms and prayed and howled “hallelujah.” Others rushed over to the ambulance, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the lone survivor of his office through the vehicle’s small windows.

So much horror and suffering for days and finally, someone comes out alive. I watched the Israeli soldiers and rescuers embracing each other, and I just broke down and cried.

# # #

Brooklyn, NY — January 27, 2010 — The critical role that space exploration and development will play in the survival of Earth is the focus of Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth, a new book co-authored by New York City College of Technology (City Tech) Physics Professor Gregory L. Matloff.

Dr. Matloff and his co-author Les Johnson look at how resolving the environmental challenges that confront Earth will depend on more than conservation and the application of current and emerging planet-based energy and other technologies. Johnson is deputy manager of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Advanced Concepts Office at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

“Paradise Regained,” says Matloff, “was written to advance public awareness and understanding of the critical role that the exploration and development of space will play in both the short- and long-term survival of humankind and a planet that is rapidly exhausting its resources. We must turn to the heavens — and as soon as possible — so we may begin solving some of the very real ecological and energy problems we face.”

Published by Springer Science & Business Media, with a retail price of $27.50, the book is the latest in a series of works on the space sciences by Matloff and Johnson.

Anything but a “doomsday” scenario, this visionary work outlines in a positive, straightforward manner how space resources and space-based power generating systems can work synergistically with Earth-based conservation to enable us to meet our projected industrial needs and forge a prosperous and sustainable future.

“With an ever-increasing share of the human population making the transition to the ‘developed’ world,” says Johnson, “will come increasing stress on the Earth’s environment, natural resources, and ability to produce enough food. The modern environmental movement is tackling these problems head-on by promoting energy efficiency, recycling and renewable resources.  While these strategies and technologies are vital, they will be woefully insufficient to provide for a prosperous, long-lived global society with a moderate-to-high standard of living.”

According to Matloff, the solution to a progressively worsening environmental situation and its negative impact on society will require “drawing upon the vast energy and material resources that space alone can provide. Doing so will enable us to create a cleaner, healthier environment essential to sustaining life on Earth far into the future.”

Johnson notes that space is infinitely rich in untapped resources. “They are all around us — we merely have to move a few hundred kilometers straight up into space to access them. Once there, a literal universe of energy, raw materials and real estate is the province of humanity.”

Matloff and Johnson make a compelling case for utilizing the gifts that our sun and solar system offer for the taking. Among these steps are developing the ability to maneuver asteroids into near-Earth orbits for the purpose of mining them for their mineral-rich resources. To reduce pollution, we could relocate our heavy manufacturing operations to similar near-Earth objects. We could create a system of in-space satellites around the planet that beam vast amounts of the sun’s radiant energy directly to receivers on the surface.

“Achieving such goals,” says Matloff, “will take time and necessitate reordering our priorities. They do not constitute a quick fix, but must be implemented as expeditiously as possible. We are running out of time and must get very serious about these and related matters. We must begin to view time as perhaps our most valuable and rapidly diminishing resource.”

The chapter frontispieces for Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth were created by artist C Bangs whose works are included in public and private collections worldwide as well as in books and journals. She has often created the artwork for Matloff’s books.

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York enrolls 15,404 students in 60 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs. An additional 15,000 enroll in continuing education and workforce development programs.