Current Projects

SPRING 2018 Project Descriptions

Architecture

  1. Grow Smart RI –Transit-Oriented Development Evaluation Research (Dr. Ginette Wessel)

    The goal of this project is to research transit-oriented development opportunities across Rhode Island to encourage walkable, transit friendly, and desirable urban development for variety of users of all ages, abilities, incomes, and ethnic and racial backgrounds. This effort supports the State of Rhode Island’s Transportation Master-plan currently in development.

    Today, commuter train and bus services lack sufficient ridership and trip frequency, while Rhode Island’s population continues to grow and live regionally. We see these issues as an opportunity to rethink existing transit infrastructure and to promote compact, pedestrian friendly development. We suggest reshaping growth and development patterns surrounding accessible and reliable modes of transit. This approach supports long-term sustainability goals to reduce vehicular travel and encourage healthy lifestyles through walking and biking. It also supports the creation of sorely needed housing for a variety of incomes with access to reliable mobility options. Grow Smart RI, HousingWorks RI, and Roger Williams University bring useful expertise and body of pertinent knowledge to this analysis. We'll leverage the expertise and talent of RWU graduate students in GIS (spring) and Intro to Planning (fall) classes to perform the necessary research and to present a clear and informative presentation of findings, focused on the most promising districts to support TOD.
     
  2. Nantucket Historical Association - Nantucket Whaling Museum Addition (ARCH 430: Advanced Design Studio, Prof. Robert Dermody)

    The Historical Association recently acquired a property directly adjacent to the Whaling Museum. This Community Partnership Center studio will focus on the newly acquired parcel. Research on issues concerning, zoning, sustainability historical districts, climate change, accessibility, will be conducted. Students will develop design proposals for how the Historical Association can best use the new property while meeting its mission and strategic plan goals.
     
  3. Gloria Gemma Foundation - “Architecture that Cares: Maggie meets Gloria” ARCH 413: Advanced Design Studio, Prof. Gary Graham)

    Students enrolled in the course “Advanced Design Studio” (ARCH 413), taught by Professor Gary Graham, will focus on an integrated process of design and discovery that has a logic and a structure formulated to achieve a comprehensive understanding of a very special type of building: A Cancer Caring and Resource Center. This will be a place of support and hope, where people, who are suffering from a complicated and difficult diagnosis, their family, and friends, can find a place of relief from the cold hard facts of medical intervention, and the cold hard corridors of the medical model institutions where treatment is provided.

    This studio will endeavor to absorb the concepts and programs of the Maggie’s Centre’s in the United Kingdom, and translate the ideas of Maggie Keswick Jencks to the actual needs and goals of The Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation. This effort will result in the programming, site analysis, conceptual design, and developed design of an expressive reinterpretation of a Maggie’s Centre in the context of the local culture and environment.

Business

  1. Riverzedge Arts - Personnel Policy Review (Dr. Susan Bosco) Riverzedge Arts has a Personnel Policy that has not been updated in at least two years, if not longer. They sought out the assistance of RWU students to help with reviewing their personnel policy to update it to assure that they are in compliance with state and federal employee regulations. In addition, they are also assisting this organization with feedback on how to better organize this document so that components that are relevant to their full-time staff is clear and distinct from that what is relevant to the part time staff.
     
  2. Town of Portsmouth - Glen Manor House Lease Feasibility Research and Analysis
     
  3. Nantucket Historical Association - Historical business model research of 19th century whaling industries
     
  4. The Historical Association recently acquired a property directly adjacent to the Whaling Museum. This Community Partnership Center studio will focus on the newly acquired parcel. Research on issues concerning, zoning, sustainability historical districts, climate change, accessibility, will be conducted. Students will develop design proposals for how the Historical Association can best use the new property while meeting its mission and strategic plan goals.

Computer Science

  1. 1772 Foundation-Historic Existing Building Energy Calculator (HEBEC)

    The Historic/Existing Building Energy Calculator (HEBEC) is an electronic tool to support decision making for changes to existing buildings (with a focus on older and historic structures) in objective and data-driven ways. HEBEC will require users to input a few key data points about the building and will then calculate and present outcomes for multiple scenarios such as demolition, rehabilitation, and replacement. These results are measured in energy, sustainability, and monetary metrics. HEBEC will be developed by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students drawn from Roger Williams University’s Schools of Engineering, Architecture and Historic Preservation, in conjunction with the 1772 Foundation.

CPC Design and Research Team

  1. Portsmouth Arts Guild-Project Café

    The Design and Research team, under the mentorship of Professor Robert Dermody and the Roger Williams University (RWU) Community Partnerships Center (CPC) will work with the Portsmouth Arts Guild to create conceptual drawings, conceptual renderings, a cost estimate, and a zoning analysis for the Project Cafe. This project will produce existing conditions plans and a proposed schematic design.
     
  2. Herreshoff Marine Museum-Herreshoff House

    The Design and Research team, under the mentorship of Professor Robert Dermody and the Roger Williams University (RWU) Community Partnerships Center (CPC) will work with the Herreshoff Marine Museum to study the Herreshoff House and adjacent Building 30 property and develop possible options for the rehabilitation of both buildings and development of interstitial exterior spaces. The Museum is seeking to find a way to generate revenue through the possible preservation of the house and the family's history while incorporated a revitalization of Building 30 into the program. RWU Students will study the feasibility of the project through different avenues beginning with an analysis of the existing conditions.
     
  3. Town of Bristol-Prudence Island Ferry Sign

    The Design and Research team, under the mentorship of Professor Robert Dermody and the Roger Williams University (RWU) Community Partnerships Center (CPC) will work with the Town of Bristol on the design/illustration of a sign for the Conley Dock at the Prudence Island ferry dock on Thames Street.
     
  4. Housing Works RI-Accessory Dwelling Unit Design Research and Best Practices Guild
     
  5. Town of Portsmouth-Portsmouth Glen Manor House Assessment, Precedent Analysis and Reuse Recommendations

    The Design and Research team, under the mentorship of Professor Robert Dermody and the Roger Williams University (RWU) Community Partnerships Center (CPC) will work with the Town of Portsmouth to improve their business plan for the Glen Manor House. Currently, the manor caters to small wedding events. In order to maximize capital investment the partner is seeking recommendations on how to reconfigure the building program. Therefore, the Design and Research team has been asked to make an architectural evaluation of the current interior space.
     
  6. Town of Coventry - Municipal Composing Facility Site Assessment

    The Design and Research team, under the mentorship of Professor Robert Dermody and the Roger Williams University (RWU) Community Partnerships Center (CPC) will work with The Town of Coventry Department of Public Works on creating a proposal for the Town Council to launch a Municipal Composting Program. In order to present, a valid proposal to the Council the Department needs to select one or more viable locations from Town owned properties and provide site plans for each. They are requesting assistance from the Design and Research in selecting the site and creating said site plans.

Engineering

  1. City of New Bedford - Fort Taber Structural Analysis Assessment

    Roger Williams School of Engineering, in conjunction with the Community Partnerships Center and the City of New Bedford, has taken on a challenge in regards to the restoration of Fort Taber. The overall purpose of the project is to evaluate the physical condition and the strength capacity of the masonry arches. Upon completion of any required restoration, the Fort will be open to public use. After reviewing the proposed plans, the City of New Bedford will have a cohesive understanding of how to proceed with the structural rehabilitation process. Fort Taber is an important part of U.S. history, even dating as far back as the 1860's. This redesign will start a process in making Fort Taber a place where the public can enjoy its history.
     
  2. Town of Bristol and RI Department of Transportation – Assessment and Design for RWU Bike Path Connection (Senior Engineering Design Project, Prof. William Seymour) 

    The goal of this project is to design a path or bikeway that connects the Bristol campus of Roger Williams University to the East Bay Bike Path. Students will work with town officials and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to determine the best route and to put together a cost estimate.
     
  3. Bristol County Water Authority - Assessment and Design for Water Supply Distribution system for Touisett Point community in Warren RI (Senior Engineering Design Project, Dr. Janet Baldwin)

    Design of a water distribution system for a remote area of Warren, RI called Touisset Point that is currently supplied by wells but frequently experiences salt-water intrusion and low water supplies.  The system would connect with the town’s water main at either Child Street or across the narrows.  The project will require computer modeling, GIS, and collecting survey data.

Foreign Languages

  1. Town of Bristol- Translation into Portuguese for Kathleen Micken’s Downtown Market Survey and Analysis

    The overall goal is to collect data to assist the Community Development Department in assessing the Downtown Bristol area and to make decisions about how usage levels might be increased. The primary vehicle for the data collection will be three surveys, each targeted to a particular population: Bristol residents, the RWU community (students, faculty and staff) and Downtown Bristol merchants. Professor Dorian Lee Jackson and his students will assist Professor Kathleen Micken’s course with the translation of this survey into Portuguese to reach all Bristol residents.

Historic Preservation

  1. City of Providence Redevelopment Agency-Rochambeau Fire Station building Case Study (Preservation Documentation, Dr. Elaine Stiles)

    Students in the course Preservation Economics will utilize the Rochambeau Fire Station building as a case study for an adaptive reuse feasibility study. The students in the course would prepare a feasibility study analyzing several different types of reuse for the building.

    This would include a review of legal limitations to establish allowed uses, community and political considerations in reuse scenarios, a market assessment of the city/neighborhood for potential reuses, study of physical and technical constraints, and financial analysis of each of the potential uses.
     
  2. Grow Smart RI-RI Historic Preservation Tax Credit Analysis and Advocacy Campaign Formulation

History/American Studies

  1. Girls, Inc. of Taunton- Mentoring Mind & Body with Girls, Inc. of Taunton (Dr. Laura D’Amore)

    Girls, Inc of Taunton will give Roger Williams University students in Professor Laura D’Amore’s AMST 370: Girl Culture in America the opportunity to deepen their learning by becoming mentors and program leaders for girls in this program. RWU students will develop Mind & Body programs for girls at Girls, Inc. This experiential learning opportunity engages with the community partner where their needs are, and mutually benefits the organization and the students. This partnership will truly help students apply their classroom lessons to the real world in relevant and impactful ways, helping them to become students that the world needs now.
     
  2. Potter League – Animal Studies Field Experience and Reflection (Animal Studies, Dr. Sargon Donabed)

    In the spring of 2018, Roger Williams University’s Community Partnerships Center has through a partnership between the Potter League for Animals and Professor Donabed’s HIST 430.02: Living Nature: Animal Studies and (Deep) Ecological Ethics (the first course of its kind at RWU in Animal Studies/Anthrozoology), begun to give back to a more-than-human community. Besides classes on Monday and Thursdays, students work at the Potter League every Monday and Friday morning helping with the dog, cat, and small mammal kennel cleaning.

    They are also helping with daily tasks such as laundry, dishes, etc…Students begin at Level 1 Cat Socializers and Dog Walkers after completing a 3-hour training program. By attending additional training classes, they then advance to Level 2 Cat Socializers and Dog Walkers. Less than 20% of all volunteers working with dogs complete this level of training, and most of the dogs in the shelter are Level 2 dogs. This achievement allows them to work with the dogs that really need to form connections with people to decrease their stress levels and improve their behaviors, making them more comfortable during their time here and more receptive to potential adopters, resulting in them finding a forever home more quickly. Volunteers who achieve Level 2 Cat Training can make a significant contribution by getting to know our Level 2 cats and helping them de-stress and form comforting relationships during their stays here. This increases their chance of being adopted and reduces the likeliness of them sustaining stress-related illnesses.
     
  3. Women’s Fund RI-100th Anniversary Women’s Right to Vote (Dimensions of History, Dr. Debra Mulligan)

    Roger Williams University students in Professor Mulligan’s course Dimensions of History will work with the Women’s Fund RI to research women in history who had an impact on the women's movement and influenced their right to vote. This course will introduce students to various “methods” employed by historians to determine certitude in history. Through the use of primary source documents located in archival repositories throughout the state, they will trace the journey of women suffrage advocates in their quest to obtain voting rights.

Graphic Design

  1. The Providence Center - Branding Identity with the Jim Gillen Anchor Youth Recovery Community Center (Citizen Designer, Prof. Dina Vincent)

    Citizen Designer is a course taught by Dina Zaccagnini Vincent focusing on graphic design as being a socially transformative practice. This semester, students will be working with The Providence Center in designing the identity for The Jim Gillen Anchor Youth Recovery Community Center (the first of its kind in the state). The mission of the center is to provide adolescents affected by addiction with necessary treatment and supportive services within a community setting. The identity system will include the design of various promotional materials, signage and interior space (with assistance from the CPC Design and Research team).
     
  2. Women’s Fund RI – Graphic Design Research and Concept Development for 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote Campaign (Independent study with John Farmer)

    The Roger Williams University (RWU) Community Partnerships Center (CPC) will work with the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island and RWU Professor John Famer who will mentor student Katherine Carpenter through an independent study course to create a marketing campaign to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the women’s right to vote. Along with this, another important component to the project is to bring awareness to the Women’s Fund and to increase fundraising. Currently, there is no celebration campaign, and so the goal is to kick start one and design a unified theme and look that can be used on various items that can be sold.

RWU Law School

  1. City of Newport- Zoning Ordinance Analysis and Update within Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Issues (Prof. Julia Wyman)
     
  2. Housing Works RI and RI Center for Justice - RI Tenant Stabilization Project (Hassenfeld Project)

    The goal of this project is to research transit-oriented development opportunities across Rhode Island to encourage walkable, transit friendly, and desirable urban development for a variety of users. Currently commuter train and bus services lack sufficient ridership and trip frequency, while Rhode Island’s population continues to grow and live regionally. We see these issues as an opportunity to rethink existing transit infrastructure and to promote compact, pedestrian friendly development. We suggest reshaping growth and development patterns surrounding accessible and reliable modes of transit. This approach supports long-term sustainability goals to reduce vehicular travel and encourage healthy lifestyles through walking and biking. It also supports the creation of sorely needed housing for a variety of incomes with access to reliable mobility options. Additionally, our research efforts align with the State of Rhode Island’s Transportation Master Plan currently in development.

Marine Biology

  1. RI Veterans Home-Development and Design for Accessible Fishing Pier
     
  2. Town of Bristol - Municipal Oyster Program Survey (Dr. Dale Leavitt)

    The Town of Warren, RI has recently implemented a public oyster program, the first of its type in Rhode Island. The project is a joint development with Roger Williams University Dale Leavitt, Associate Professor of Biology and Principal Investigator for the project and his team of students will survey existing municipal oyster programs in the New England/New York region.

Marketing

  1. Town of Bristol-Downtown Market Analysis

    The overall goal is to collect data to assist the Community Development Department in assessing the Downtown Bristol area and to make decisions about how usage levels might be increased. The primary vehicle for the data collection will be three surveys, each targeted to a particular population: Bristol residents, the RWU community (students, faculty and staff) and Downtown Bristol merchants. Additionally, students will conduct shopper intercept interviews. Survey distribution and the analysis and reporting of results will be conducted in the Spring 2018 semester. For the purposes of the project, “Downtown Bristol” is defined as merchants/businesses located in an area bounded by Thames Street on the West and Wood Street on the East and by Poppasquash Road on the North and Walley Street on the South.
     
  2. RI Nature Conservancy – Assessing Feasibility of Restaurant Oyster Shell Recycling Program (Qualitative Marketing Research, Dr. Kathy Micken)

    Professor Kathy Micken and a group of students in her Qualitative Marketing Research course will work with The Nature Conservancy RI (TNC) to assess the interest that Rhode Island restaurants might have in an oyster and clamshell-recycling program. In 2011, TNC started such a program, Oysters Gone Wild, to provide a source of shell for restoring oyster beds along the Rhode Island coast. At its peak, eight restaurants participated; now only one, The Matunuck Oyster Bar, is recycling shells. TNC would like to reestablish the program and the relationship with restaurants. Students will interview restaurant owners, managers and chefs to understand the program elements that would be the most attractive and compelling. The interview results will help guide TNC’s strategies for going forward with a new shell recycling program.
     
  3. Towns of Smithfield and Cumberland - How to Motivate Individuals to be the Best Recycler (Marketing Campaigns, Prof. Jason Oliver)

    Students in Sustainability Marketing (MRKT430) along with Professor Oliver will be working on a project with the Town of North Smithfield to help the town increase recycling behavior. This will be done through research and the development of some educational materials that will all help increase awareness about recycling.

Philosophy

  1. Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) at Brown University's Pembroke Center for Feminist Theory (PHIL 310 - Feminism and Philosophy, Dr. Christina Rawls)

    Students in Feminism & Philosophy PHIL 310 and Professor Christina Rawls will work with Brown University’s Pembroke Center for Feminist Theory, the leading center for feminist theory and historical record in the country . The Pembroke Center is home to the newly created Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) archive. SWIP began in 1971, is alive, and well today throughout the world. Dr. Rawls was one of six philosophers who worked on finding a permanent home for SWIP for more than two years.

Web Development

  1. The Providence Center-Website for new Jim Gillen Anchor Youth Recovery Community Center (Web Development Center CIS 299, 399, 499, Prof. Al Cutting)

    Students in the Web Development Center (CIS 299,399,499) along with Professor Al Cutting will be working on creating content for a webpage for the center that will be a part of their larger main website. The Jim Gillen Anchor Youth Recovery Community Center (the first of its kind in the state) will provide adolescents affected by addiction with necessary treatment and supportive services within a community setting.

Writing

  1. The RI Nature Conservancy – Site descriptions on the Web and Signage (Writing for Sciences, Dr. Brian Hendrickson)

    Students in Advanced Writing (Sciences) and Professor Brian Hendrickson will work with The RI Nature Conservancy to develop conservation site descriptions on the web and at the sites themselves that encourage the general public to visit these sites and invest in their conservation.
     
  2. Save the Bay - (Writing for Sciences, Dr. Brian Hendrickson)

    Students in Advanced Writing (Sciences) and Professor Brian Hendrickson will work with Save the Bay on blogs, podcasts, and social media campaigns that raise public awareness of the importance of a number of issues ranging from salt marsh preservation to nutrient pollution reduction.
     
  3. The Gloria Gemma Foundation – Cancer Prevention/Awareness Social Media Campaign (Dr. Brian Hendrickson)

    Students in Advanced Writing (Sciences) and Professor Brian Hendrickson will work with Gloria Gemma to develop web content and a social media campaign strategy related to cancer awareness/prevention for millennials.
     
  4. Community Strings Project - Manual for Board Members (Professional Writing, Dr. Catherine Forsa)

    Professor Forsa and her students in her Writing for Business Organizations course will be collaborating with the Community Strings Project (CSP), a Bristol non-profit organization that provides orchestral instruction to children and adults in the East Bay area. They will work with the organization’s director to create and/or revise a Board of Directors Orientation Handbook.