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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • The EnergyFit program, co-created by the Pratt Center for Community Development, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, and IMPACCT Brooklyn, was featured in The City for helping Brooklyn homeowners make energy-efficient and long-overdue repairs. “A lot of these households are in communities that have been disinvested in for a long time, where people are house-rich, cash-poor, and have fallen so far behind on maintenance that to even be able to start moving towards electrification and efficiency, you’ve got to solve these other home maintenance problems,” said Rebekah Morris-Gonzalez, director of climate initiatives at Pratt. “The benefits that will accrue are not just around carbon reductions. It is really about health improvements to households and comfort.”

  • Associate Professor in the School of Information Nancy Smith is presenting at the Data | Art Symposium at Harvard. Her presentation, “Environmental Data & Fiber Arts: Experiments in Stitching, Quilting, and Sculpture,” explores her recent work in data physicalization and slow technology.

  • Ananda Ray, BFA Digital Arts ’24, presented on the Apollo Theater’s Career Panel, “Beyond the Algorithm: New Voices in AI & AR.” 

  • Jack McKernan, Lauren Holmes, and Cleo de Lasa, all MSLIS ’26, presented their paper, “The Revolution, In Boxes,” at the Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2025 conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on May 19–21, 2025.

    Three people smiling and posing together in front of a stone wall and university charter sign.
  • Sixty-five projects were presented at this year’s InfoShow, representing the work of over 100 students, with over 350 attendees. You can find the program here with detailed information on each presentation. Awards were presented to Jocelyn Fung, MS Data Analytics and Visualization ’26, (School shootings and the manosphere: spatially correlated or moral panic?); Jeffrey Delacruz, MSIXD ’25, Chieh Lei, MSIXD ’25, Qasim Malik, MSIXD ’26, Yuri Minami, MSIXD ’25, Indrani Thool, MSIXD ’25, and Pete Wise, MSIDX ’25, (Internet of Things (IoT) Class project demos); Simran Kaur, MSIXD ’26, (Beyond the Western Gaze); and Shreedhar Verma, MSIXD ’25, (Visualizing Cognitive Health: Data Viz in Healthcare).

    Three people smiling and laughing in front of a design presentation featuring app interface mockups.
  • James Garrison, adjunct professor of Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design (GA/LA/UD), was interviewed in Gothamist for an article on whether modular housing can address New York City’s housing crisis. “One of the great benefits of modular construction is that it assembles very rapidly, sometimes in half the time of a conventional building,” he said. “So that means that that 10%, 12% construction loan that you’re paying now is cut in half.”

  • Twenty-two students in the School of Information are receiving nine-month fellowships beginning this fall to engage in projects with NYC institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, MoMA, The Frick, and Museum of the City of New York. The fellowship program supports two-semester practicum internships designed to provide students exceptional professional-level experience in NYC’s world-class institutions.

More Pratt Institute News

A group portrait of nine smiling Project SEARCH interns dressed in formal and semi-formal attire, seated together on wooden steps in a brightly lit interior space. The group includes a diverse mix of individuals, with some in suits, button-down shirts, and one wearing a white ruffled dress. They appear proud and celebratory, possibly marking their graduation or completion of the program.

Workplace Ready: Project SEARCH Interns Graduate

New York City high school students received career training through Project SEARCH, a national program focused on workforce-readiness for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Pratt Names Courtney Knapp New Chair of the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment

From Pratt Institute News

An award-winning scholar and professor in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment’s Urban and Community Planning program, Knapp will assume the role on July 1, 2025, succeeding Eve Baron, who is stepping down to join the full-time faculty.
Two smiling individuals dressed in formal attire pose on a red carpet holding Tony Awards. The man on the left wears a blue tuxedo with a colorful bow tie, while the man on the right wears a black suit with decorative details and a white high-collared shirt. The background includes logos for CBS, Paramount+, and the Tony Awards.

Alumni Harvey Fierstein and Paul Tazewell Shine at the Tony Awards

From Pratt Institute News

Esteemed writer and actor Harvey Fierstein was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the theater; Oscar-winning designer Paul Tazewell won for Best Costume Design in a Musical.