Facilities

NEW for Fall 2023: The Kakos School of Science Active Learning Classroom

It has been well established that engaging students in the process and practices of science through active learning in undergraduate classrooms increases the success of all students. In an effort to further support the success of all students, we have created a flexible learning space to make it easier for students to participate in evidence-based active learning exercises during their lectures. The Kakos School of Science Active Learning Classroom includes movable seating to encourage groupwork and collaboration. Movable whiteboards will enable students to document and share their ideas as they are learning with and from each other. We are excited to continue to provide our students with an excellent learning experience using our new flexible learning space.

Highlights of the Biology Department Facilities Collaborations

Our Biology program has several laboratories in the Leo Building and in the Higgins Center.

The Department houses new molecular and organismal biology laboratories, tissue culture facilities and a rooftop greenhouse. Students have access to common research equipment in addition to fluorescent and 3D imaging equipment, bioinformatic data analysis software, a flow cytometer and a nano-injection apparatus.

Research in the Biology Department is supported by three large Endowments: the Catherine and Robert Fenton Endowment, the Linda and Dennis Fenton '73 Endowment and the Dr. C. Lowell and JoEllen Parsons ’66 Endowment.

Faculty in the Biology Department also have collaborative relationships with the laboratories at the American Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Gardens and the Yale-Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Biology students also have opportunities to perform field research with faculty in the Department in Bolivia, St. Johns US Virgin Islands, Central and Northern Andes Mountains and other international field sites.

Highlights of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department Facilities and Collaborations

The lines separating research and teaching laboratory spaces in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry are blurred to ensure that all students gain the practical and applied laboratory experiences inherent in programs that prioritize novel research for undergraduate students. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has laboratory spaces in both Hayden Hall and the Higgins Center. The Department boasts laboratories that are specialized for work in varying disciplines including analytical chemistry, biochemistry, environmental science, organic chemistry and physical chemistry. Each space includes state-of-art equipment to support student work including an NMR spectrometer, several gas chromatographs, spectrophotometers and x-ray diffractioners. Our environmental science laboratory includes a weather station and Arduino sensors to evaluate air quality.

Faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry collaborate with Manhattan College’s Center for Urban Resilience and Environmental Sustainability (CURES). CURES is an interdisciplinary center that “….is dedicated to serving urban communities with a suite of research, education, restorative justice and urban planning programs designed to improve quality of life for residents, especially for those in underserved neighborhoods.”

The faculty also use the resources available to them in the Kakos School of Science Kakos Center for Scientific Computing. The Kakos Center for Scientific Computing opened in 2014 and gives our students access to the same state-of-the-art technology used at the world’s top universities and research laboratories. It boasts a liquid-cooled 64GB high speed GNU/Linux server complete with five Tesla graphics processing units. Projects that our students and faculty use the Kakos Center for include:

• Developing algorithms
• Modeling 3D structures of molecules
• Solving equations that require high performance computing

Highlights of the Department of Physics and Astronomy Facilities and Collaborations

Our Physics and Astronomy laboratories are housed in both Hayden Hall and the Higgins Center. There are laboratory spaces dedicated to experimental optics, lasers and modern and theoretical physics. Students can perform research in any of these areas using the resources available to them in the different laboratories.

The optics laboratory is an undergraduate teaching and research laboratory for all student levels. Experiments for advanced undergraduates in this laboratory include projects on polarization, interference, diffraction, spectrometry, fiber optics and holography.

The laser laboratory provides students with access to automated data acquisition, lock-in amplifiers, higher-power lasers, spectrum analyzers and other equipment and components. Experiments are designed to address current issues in optical science, and students learn how to conduct experiments, use research equipment, collect and analyze data, and present results. Students can design their own research projects to conduct with guidance from an experienced faculty member. The modern physics laboratory provides students with opportunities to address research questions in the fields of modern and theoretical physics. Senior-level students perform advanced experiments such as synthesizing doped oxides using solid state reaction, making nanotubes using electrochemical anodization and characterizing the structure of materials using different spectroscopies. Associated with the lab is a machine shop (with a Sawzall, drill press, metal lathe and more) and a well-equipped electronics laboratory.

A highlight of the Physics and Astronomy Department is its collaborations with national and international state-of-the-art facilities. Our students routinely join our faculty research mentors to conduct research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. We have also established a strong, formal relationship with the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). Our students are exposed to the most advanced research facilities and physics thinkers of the world.

Highlights of the Department of Computer Science Facilities and Collaborations

The Computer Science facilities include a Linux laboratory, as well as a number of Windows-based laboratories. There is also access to a high-speed Beowulf computer cluster for high performance computing.

Kakos Center for Scientific Computing

Thanks to the generosity of the Mr. Michael J. ’58 and Aimee Rusinko Kakos endowment, the Manhattan College Kakos School of Science is honored to have the Kakos Center for Scientific Computing.

Located in Hayden Hall, the Kakos Center offers our students and faculty cutting edge computer facilities with a cluster of several Windows workstations and five separate high-performance Linux based servers optimized for parallel computing and scientific applications. Each of these systems has been tailored for computational tasks as diverse as quantum mechanical, biophysical, and even biomedical fields. They are used by student-faculty research groups across the Manhattan College community but, primarily support the research endeavors of our Kakos School of Science research teams. The HPCs are named Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena Artemis and Apollo; they were built in house.

The center also houses a 64 TB network attached storage. The latest addition to the center is a 3D printer, along with a strand splicer to print multi-colored 3D models.

Dionysus (Greek god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth)

Dionysus was the first machine built, and runs on a CPU with 24 threads, 64 GB of DDR3 RAM, and 4 Tesla k20 CUDA GPUs designed for enterprise workflows.

Athena (Greek goddess associated with wisdom, handicraft, and warfare)

Athena is the latest addition to the Kakos Center family.  It is powered by a CPU with 20 threads, 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, and 2 Quadro P5000 16 GB CUDA GPUs.

Artemis (Greek goddess associated with the hunt, wilderness, wild animals, and the Moon)

Artemis runs on a CPU with 32 threads, 128 GB of DDR4 RAM, and 4 Quadro P5000 16GB CUDA GPUs.

Apollo (Greek god associated with archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases; twin brother of Artemis)

Apollo is the latest addition to the Kakos Center family. Apollo runs on a CPU with 32 threads, 128 GB of DDR5 RAM, and 2 Rtx A5000 CUDA.)

Highlights of the Department of Mathematics Facilities and Collaborations

Our Department of Mathematics is housed in a second-floor suite in the Research and Learning Center on the South campus of Manhattan College. The space includes faculty offices and a large central working area for student-faculty discussions and research collaborations. All faculty offices have been updated with high capacity desktop computers to support the computational needs of the mathematics faculty.