The IACS Student Association Logo contest is under way!
The rules are simple! Design a logo for the IACS Student Association and email it to mjavanmard@cs.stonybrook.edu before May 31st. Please make sure to include “IACS Student Association Logo Submission” in your subject line, and your full name in the body of the email. The winner will be chosen by the IACS Student Association committee.
 |
| (L-R) IACS Student Association Treasurer Tristan Delaney, President Aimilios Sofianopolous, and Secretary Joel Anderson stand outside the entrance to IACS Photo by Taylor Ha |
The IACS Student Association soon to receive official club status
By Taylor Ha
After completing just two more steps, the IACS Student Association will become an official club at Stony Brook University. “We’ve been operating as an unofficial club for a while,” said Secretary Joel Anderson. “It feels good – the promise of more funding.”
Although the association has already hosted several engaging events, including its December kickoff dinner at Stony Brook’s local The Bench Bar & Grill, it will be able to present more opportunities for the IACS student community: With official status comes potential funding from the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) and Faculty Student Association (FSA). Potential upcoming events include the following:
The club holds biweekly executive board meetings and hopes to soon implement subcommittees that will meet every month. Eventually, a full-time official club roster will be formed.
Sofianopoulos said he was surprised that the club worked as well as it did. He did not expect a large graduate student turnout for past IACS events, but quite a few people did show up, even students who were not associated with IACS. “I’ve re-bonded with many of my friends because of [these events],” Sofianopoulos said. The IACS Student Association also inadvertently became a matchmaking team. “Actually, two of my friends started dating because they met at one of our events,” he remarked.
Sofianopoulos, Anderson and Delaney widely attributed the IACS Student Association’s success to Lynn Allopenna, the Administrative Director for the Institute for Advanced Computational Science, who was ultimately the brainchild behind the club. “She comes up with a lot of the ideas, and she rejects the bad ideas, which is even better,” Sofianopoulos said to a chorus of laughter from his fellow executive board members.
More information about the IACS Student Association can be found on their website: https://you.stonybrook.edu/iacssa/contact/, their Facebook page called “IACS Student Association,” and on their upcoming Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Journalism student Taylor Ha wrote an article about our Kickoff event last December!
 |
| IACS Student Association held their kickoff event on Thursday, December 3
Photo by Taylor Ha |
President Aimilios Sofianopoulos reveals the new club’s goals
“There are many people who do the same research, but we don’t really know each other,” Aimilios Sofianopoulos said. That’s exactly why the Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) Student Association was created.
Headed by Sofianopoulos, a second year PhD student, this new multidisciplinary student club aims to foster connections among Stony Brook University graduate students who are interested in computational science. This mission was partially triggered by the very solitary nature of this scientific field. “Especially in our zones of research, people get to be very isolated from each other,” Sofianopoulos said. “We’re in front of computers all day, working on codes and syncing lines of code.”
At last Thursday night’s first official meeting, the club’s mission was put into play. Over thirty-five new members mingled at The Bench Bar & Grill, a local sports bar, and sparked new friendships over free appetizers and drinks. Many of them, like second-year graduate student Rena Elkin enjoyed the camaraderie but also took advantage of the opportunity to discuss science. “I figured it would be a good way to get to know who else is here, and what they’re working on,” Elkin said.
Besides bringing together graduate students who are interested in computational science, the IACS Student Association plans to take advantage of its promising location: New York. “We have many opportunities that we wouldn’t have in other states,” Sofianopoulos noted. According to the student club president, many big companies, or potential employers, are around New York City and New Jersey. Having graduate students get to know these employers can pave the way for professional connections, scientific collaborations, and industrial feedback.
IACS Student Association President Sofianopoulos is joined by fellow student committee members Treasurer Tristan Delaney, Secretary Joel Anderson, and Vice President Mohammed Mahdi Javanmard. Sofianopoulos largely brainstorms ideas for future events and works on forging connections between the IACS Student Association and similar groups in institutions like Columbia and NYU. Some potential future events include more social gatherings on and off campus, academic/industrial lectures from invited speakers and professional development workshops. “Our next goal is to have an event that describes the whole procedure from zero, from scratch, to a patent – a full patent,” he said. This event would potentially include an SBU lawyer who would explain the entire procedure from a legal standpoint, an SBU professor who is one of the three patent holders for the iPod, and an Apple employee in charge of research and development recruitment.
“We try to combine looking for jobs on the one hand with university academic work on the other hand. This new association is the vehicle for joining hands,” Sofianopoulos concluded.
For more information about the IACS Student Association, or if you would like to join the group, or if you would just like to stay aware of future events and be included on their listserve, send your name, email address and a few words about your level of interest to Secretary Joel Anderson at joel.s.anderson@stonybrook.edu. You can also visit their Facebook page.
You’ve found the IACS Student Association website! For now, take a look at our About page, and check back here later for information on future events!