URI Economic Impact Report - Autumn 2020

COMPUTER EDUCATION IN RHODE ISLAND

SOCIAL DISCOURSE IN RHODE ISLAND

ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY IN RHODE ISLAND

During the summer of 2019, URI Computer Science Professor Victor Fay- Wolfe led 60 middle and high school teachers from around the state of Rhode Island in a week of computer science training at the University. The program, in which high school students take URI courses to earn university credit while meeting high school requirements, has grown robustly in large part due to the demand for computer science classes. The work Fay-Wolfe has done highlights Rhode Island as a national leader in computer science education. • More than 1,000 Rhode Island high school students obtained college computer science concurrent enrollment credit in the past academic year, the highest percentage in the country. • 100 percent of traditional school districts offer computer science

URI and local towns will generate economic benefits while boosting the amount of renewable energy flowing into the state’s electric grid. The collaboration is one of the largest solar power initiatives in New England and will cover 267 acres in West Kingston, South Kingstown, and West Greenwich. • The installations are expected to deliver 48,000 megawatt hours of energy to the grid annually. • Enough to power 750 homes, and offset the fossil fuel consumption of 1,500 cars. • 65 percent of URI’s energy needs are now generated by solar power. • The power generated will help the state meet its goal of having 100 percent of the energy consumed by state government supplied through renewable sources by the year 2025.

Kendall Moore, University of Rhode Island journalism professor, and documentary filmmaker tackles difficult social and political issues including racism, health, gender, and the environment in her films. Moore’s investigative documentary film class works hard on several projects. The film topics include emerging contaminants in Rhode Island’s Narraganset Bay; the lack of diversity in STEM fields; differing views on climate change; an investigation into noise pollution in the Westerly area; and different life experiences on the autism spectrum. Moore’s documentary class produced several documentary shorts that aired on PBS. The stories examined an algal bloom that shut down part of Narragansett Bay, the recent Gypsy Moth infestation, and lead paint contamination. The lead paint film, Jalen and Joanna: A Lead Paint Story, was selected for the first Rhode Island Black Film Festival, which opened in 2018. “If my films can be helpful to people and causes that can benefit from my skills as a journalist and filmmaker, I feel like I have managed to accomplish something,” said Moore,

URI IMPACTING...

opportunities — the highest percentage in the country.

• 78 percent of Rhode Island public schools offer at least one Advanced Placement computer science course.

URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus at Sunrise , by Scott Berstein ‘00

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12 The University of Rhode Island