Roger Williams University

Alan G. Hassenfeld, the retired chairman and CEO of Hasbro Inc., came to Roger Williams University in May to hear about the community projects that RWU students are undertaking with the help of a $500,000 gift from Hassenfeld Family Initiatives LLC.

Kelsey Rogers ’17, one of the seven students in the inaugural group of Hassenfeld Student Leadership Fellows, told Hassenfeld about her work as founding president of the Food Recovery Network on campus. Since its inception in April 2014, the RWU chapter of the Food Recovery Network has collected more than 20,000 pounds of extra food from campus dining halls and provided it to local shelters, she said.

“That would have either been composted or ended up in a landfill, which is obviously a major environmental concern,” Rogers said. “It makes a difference in the community because we are going to these shelters and we are actually putting the food in the fridge. We have a relationship with the people that are benefiting from the food we are bringing.”

For instance, one of the shelters is for battered women and their children, she said. “So many times when we get there, it’s kind of late, but if there are kids still awake, that is the best thing ever because they get so excited. We are seeing those faces of people benefitting.”

Hassenfeld asked what will happen to the Food Recovery Network at RWU once Rogers graduates.

Rogers said the organization (which works in conjunction with Bon Appétit, RWU’s food service provider) has attracted about 100 members and has a strong leadership team. “So I have no doubt it will continue on,” she said. “We have so many faculty who have been completely immersing themselves in this program to make sure it continues.” And, she said, the group has been reaching out to other colleges and universities in Rhode Island to try to make it a statewide program.

Arlene Violet, a RWU trustee who is a former state attorney general and a former nun, told Rogers that she appreciates the organization’s effort to encourage students to avoid wasting food. “It’s making people conscientious about food and people not having food,” she said. “That must be the nun part of me, but it’s this whole business of: ‘Go up for seconds if you are still hungry — but don’t waste food.’ ”

Hassenfeld also heard from Krystal Cardin ’18 about the graphic design work that RWU students did for the Pawtucket Central Falls Community Development nonprofit, which develops and manages affordable housing.

Also, RWU architecture school dean Stephen White and architecture students Meghan Roscoe and Annalisa Baci told Hassenfeld about urban forestry and tree mapping programs made possible through the Hassenfeld projects. They detailed work done with the Bristol Conservation Commission and the Roger Williams University Arboretum.

RWU President Donald J. Farish told Hassenfeld that his generous donation is helping to bolster and extend the university’s commitment to community-engaged teaching and learning. “Part of an education is learning how to be effective in helping the world be a better place and helping to change the world,” he said. “So rather than sort of study it inside the classroom, how about getting out into the community?”

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A course examining human behavior through the lens of the Syrian conflict inspires students to raise awareness on campus.

BRISTOL, R.I. – As civil war in Syria continues to devastate the country and displace millions of people, a group of Roger Williams University students led a grassroots-effort to make sure it’s not forgotten beyond the walls of a classroom. Inspired by an examination of the human impact of the Syrian conflict in a fall semester CORE Human Behavior course, the students decided to take what they had learned to the greater campus community with a candlelight vigil to spotlight the struggles that Syrian refugees are experiencing worldwide.

As twilight descended over campus on Nov. 15, students and faculty joined the class outdoors, some with candles and others shining cell phone lights, to reflect in solemn silence and to hear about the conflict from a variety of perspectives.

“Here at Roger Williams, sometimes we struggle,” said Anas Alfeez, a sophomore criminal justice major from Saudi Arabia who spoke fondly about Syria as a beautiful place he visited in his childhood. “But our struggles are good ones. We struggle to become educated, to do well on tests, to pursue our interests. Syrians struggle to survive.”

This kind of open and honest dialogue was exactly what Professor Alan Canestrari had hoped to jumpstart by bringing timely social justice issues into the classroom. In previous years, he’s taught the Human Behavior course around general psychological and sociological theories, but has since altered his approach to use current events and contemporary issues as a way for students to internalize the world and their place in it. And the University’s “Quest for Refuge” series – a yearlong series of events and academic programming that reflect critically on the current state of refugees around the world – allowed his classroom to be a springboard for exploring human compassion, altruism, and more through the lens of Syria’s civil war.

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Assistant Professor of Engineering Charles Thangaraj will lead collaborative project funded by an Innovation Voucher from the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation.

BRISTOL, R.I. – The capabilities of autonomous vehicles, both in the air and underwater, is revolutionizing our ability to work in remote locations. Whether it’s capturing data from the ocean floor, collecting photos from high above or delivering supplies to faraway places, autonomous vehicles are increasingly getting the job done. That is, at least, until they run out of power.

Now, that might be changing. A Roger Williams University engineering expert is teaming up with a local renewable-energy solar firm on a project funded by the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to design a custom wireless charging system to power drones and autonomous underwater vehicles in remote locations.

Assistant Professor of Engineering Charles Thangaraj has been enlisted by PowerDocks of Newport, a builder of floating solar-energy platforms for the marine industry, to engineer a wireless charging system into their off-grid docking stations. The $29,554 Innovation Voucher awarded last month will fund the research and development of wireless renewable-energy charging stations for land, underwater and surface-water uses for unmanned air vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Researchers will investigate both solar and wind options for generating the electricity that will be stored for charging autonomous vehicles.

“Drones and AUVs run on battery power, and sometimes operate far from civilization, deep in the mountains and forests, or undersea, where it’s not easy to get to them or get them out of the water to plug them in for a charge,” Thangaraj says. “With a wireless charging system, the vehicle can dock and charge itself, allowing for longer periods of continuous operation in the field.”

Thangaraj will lead a team of engineering students to conduct the research and design at HawkWorks, the University’s 5,600-square-foot fabrication facility located in downtown Bristol. The project will begin next year.

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Student leaders engage students, faculty, visiting parents and others in creating greater campus engagement on global humanitarian issues. 

BRISTOL, R.I. – An array of student clubs and organizations, as well as professors, staff, and visiting parents, came together on Sunday, October 23 to consider the role of the campus community in addressing global challenges and to gauge the level of campus knowledge and activism on a range of topics regarding humanitarian issues.

The organizers’ goals for the inaugural Student Humanitarian Summit – part of the Quest for Refuge Series, a year-long series of events and programming at RWU that will examine the political and cultural impact of refugees around the world – were to inform and inspire students to start or continue working on ways to address the need for alleviation of suffering worldwide, and map out collaborative plans for the rest of the year to engage more students and the broader campus community in humanitarian causes. Roger for Refugees, along with the Spiegel Center for Global and International Programs, and a working group of students, spent a month planning the event, which was co-sponsored by six other clubs and organizations on campus.

From a panel presentation by student-led groups active in social justice issues on- and off-campus to an engaging conversation with a researcher of post-conflict humanitarian efforts, the event featured a good turnout of invested students who expressed a desire to build greater awareness and engagement on many issues relating to international development and humanitarian affairs.

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