BCC Professors Inspiring Cross-Cultural Exchange Between Students in India and the U.S. Brainstorming Innovative Climate Change Solutions for Public Good 

CUNY Bronx Community College (BCC-CUNY) partnered with the U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad and U.S. Consulate General Mumbai in India to hold a three-day WeATher and Climate Hackathon (WATCH), hosted by the KISS – Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India September 19 – 21, 2024. The Hackathon was the culminating project of two BCC-CUNY U.S. State Department public diplomacy grants focused on climate change, with Professor Neal Phillip and Professor Paramita Sen of the BCC Department of Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Environmental Sciences as principal investigators. 

Teams of students from 16 higher education institutions across India where BCC-CUNY has installed weather/air quality stations, along with students from the New York Harbor High School on Governors Island, New York (where a station also had been previously installed) competed for $3,000 in cash prizes. The goal of the Hackathon was to find innovative ways to apply the data collected and determine how best this data can be used in future. 

Four mentors from across India helped the student teams refine their pitches, and the Hackathon competitors’ presentations — many of which included special apps and newly-created instruments – were judged by an international panel of expert jurors.  

According to the World Bank, more than 80 percent of India’s people live in districts that are at risk of climate-induced disasters, and in the last decade alone, economic losses due to extreme weather events have doubled. Also, the Clean Air Fund cites air pollution levels in India among the highest in the world, posing a critical threat to the country’s health and economy and resulting in more than two million deaths per year.   

“Recognizing the climate and air pollution crises in India, we have always wanted to do what we can to help,” said Professor Phillip, who, along with Professor Sen, have been leading groups of CUNY students in Study Abroad and research programs to India for the past several years and building solid working relationships with the U.S. State Department. “Paramita and I have a passion for sustainability and providing our students with authentic international research and learning opportunities. Our movement to combat climate change and involve students in both the U.S. and India has continued to expand.” 

Over the past five years, Professors Phillip and Sen have led research and study abroad trips to India with 90 CUNY students representing 14 of CUNY’s 25 campuses.  

Professors Phillip and Sen will return to India with a separate group of CUNY students this December as part of their three-year $300,000 National Science Foundation grant to conduct micro-scale air pollution research in Mumbai and New Delhi.

“Many of the BCC students who have been part of our trips had never left the Bronx prior to trekking to India,” Sen said. “Beyond learning how to use advanced technology to monitor weather and climate change and air pollution, these students are exposed to a whole new culture and community. The most common thing we hear from students is how transformative and life-changing the experience is. Many of them have themselves become change makers in climate change in CUNY and beyond.”