AP Campus Insights Project

Stevens Institute of Technology participates in an invitation-only initiative that aims to easily connect academic experts with news organizations around the world, through the platforms of The Associated Press. This is accomplished through the production of short and informative news videos featuring faculty and administrators, which provide clarity and context around emerging and breaking news.

This highly successful initiative, called the AP Campus Insights Project, has three goals:  

  • To disseminate more information from the world’s universities to a broad global audience. 

  • To enable knowledge from experts to be more accessible to the public. 

  • To positively impact public discourse promoting the understanding of issues from multiple viewpoints supported by data and objective analysis. 

For the Stevens community: Participation in the project only takes 20 minutes, so it is not a heavy lift on faculty’s time, and the team comes to your office or books a room nearby. If your expertise aligns with current news, you may be a great candidate to participate in the AP Campus Insights Project! If you receive an email from Kevin Finnegan, executive producer of the AP Campus Insights Project, with AP Campus Insights in the subject line, please respond to him as quickly as possible as success in the program can depend on a timely response, even if the response is a “no”.

The PR and media team also welcome proactive outreach by faculty members, suggesting newsworthy commentary on current events and interesting research. Please reach out to Kevin Finnegan at [email protected] or 917-763-1535.

AP Project at Stevens

Check out this two-minute video to learn more about the details and mechanics of the project.

AP Videos

Alex Wellerstein

Alex Wellerstein

Alex Wellerstein is a historian of science who specializes in the history of nuclear weapons. His writings on the history of nuclear weapons have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and the Washington Post, among other venues, and his public online nuclear weapon effects simulator, the NUKEMAP, has been used by over 25 million people globally. Here he comments on the potential use of “dirty bombs” in the conflict in the Ukraine and compares their potential for destruction with nuclear weapons.

Lindsay Cormack

Lindsey Cormack

Lindsey Cormack is an assistant professor of political science. Cormack’s areas of focus include American politics, political communication, Congress, veteran’s politics, and women in politics. In this video, she comments on the 2022 mid-term elections and the factors behind the better-than-expected showing by Democrats.

George Calhoun

George Calhoun

George Calhoun is the director of the Hanlon Financial Systems Center; a unique educational resource that encourages the application of cutting-edge technologies in unique and creative ways to solve complex, systemic financial problems. In this interview, Dr. Calhoun comments on the Federal Reserve’s decisions to raise interest rates to combat inflation. He believes the recent inflation was a result of supply chain issues caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Brendan Englot

Brendan Englot

Brendan Englot is a professor in the department of mechanical engineering and the director of the Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence. His research uses AI to improve the situational awareness of mobile robots operating in degraded conditions and to enable intelligent robot decision-making under uncertainty. Here he comments on a Stevens TechPulse survey that found Americans have become increasingly wary about the impact of artificial intelligence on everyday life over the past two years.

Stefano Bonini

Stefano Bonini

Stefano Bonini is an associate professor of business. His research focuses on corporate governance, behavioral finance, activist investors and venture capital. Here he comments on the ongoing financial drama involving Elon Musk and his takeover of Twitter.

Carlos Alomar

Carlos Alomar

Carlos Alomar is a legendary musical figure best known as the guitarist and musical director for David Bowie. As an artist in residence at Stevens, he is a lecturer and teacher as well as the founding director of the Sound Synthesis Research Center Here he reflects on his work with David Bowie and gives his thoughts on the recent Bowie documentary “Moonage Daydream.”

Samantha Muka

Samantha Muka

Samantha Muka’s research looks at the history of marine science, with special emphasis on the history of aquariums and ocean waste management. She looks at the history of technological advances and how resources came together to study and shape the marine environment. Here she talks how aquariums have changed in the past 20 years; evolving from exhibition-only spaces to places where the science of marine life is studied. She explains how a network of aquarium users have developed and shared knowledge about how to maintain marine organisms in captivity.

Philip Orton

Philip Orton

Philip Orton is a research associate professor of ocean engineering. His specific research interests include estuary and coastal ocean physics, storm surges and sea level rise, urban flood adaptation, air-sea interaction, urban and coastal atmospheric science, and computational ocean and atmosphere modeling. In this interview, he reflects on the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. He explains how unprepared the Northeast was for the storm and the effects of climate change on sea level rise.

Jason Vredenburg

Jason Vredenburg

Jason Vredenburg is a teaching associate professor in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. His research interests include 20th-century American Literature, cinema studies and television studies. Here he comments on the hits and misses from the 2023 summer movie season.

Philip Odonkor

Philip Odonkor

Philip Odonkor is an expert on energy systems. His research aims to better understand how to develop and use data-driven methodologies to enable efficient and sustainable energy use within built environments, with the goal of enabling smart cities. In this interview, he discusses the electricity grid of the future and how it will involve “smart” building that talk to each other and show power resources.

Igor Pikovsky

Igor Pikovsky

Igor Pikovsky is an assistant professor in theoretical quantum physics. His research interests include gravitational phenomena in quantum theory, quantum optics and information, and quantum opto-mechanics. In this video, he comments on the hunt for “dark matter;” a hypothetical component of the universe that cannot be seen directly but whose existence is discerned by its effects on objects that can be observed directly.

Lindsey Swindall

Lindsey Swindall

Lindsey Swindall is a teaching assistant professor of history. She earned her doctorate in Afro-American Studies and has written several books in that field including The Politics of Paul Robeson's Othello and Paul Robeson: A Life of Activism and Art. Here are her comments on the significance of President Biden’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.