SUNY ESF
Research with CCRD

At CCRD, research, teaching, and service work together. Faculty and students investigate questions that help Central New York communities plan and design better places. They share what they learn with the communities and partners involved, and they bring it back into the classroom and the field.

Central New York is a case of a region adjusting to a sudden, large investment, and we treat it as a place to develop and test methods, not only to deliver projects. Our aim is to generate findings, tools, and teaching approaches that planners, researchers, and other SUNY campuses can use elsewhere.

Synergistic teaching, research, and public service

Teaching	Research	Public Service
Students work on real projects through studios, capstones, theses, and Design Corps	Faculty and students investigate how regions change, how people experience places, how alternatives can be developed, and so forth	Planning and design studies, technical assistance, and shared tools for communities and agencies
Students learn research methods, ethics, and how to share results	Results are shared, tested, and published	Communities help shape the questions we ask

 

Research interests welcome

We welcome faculty and students from planning, design, ecology, social science, engineering, and other fields whose questions connect to Central New York. Examples of topics we are happy to hear about:

People and places

• How people experience, value, and use the places where they live
• Ways of engaging communities that capture more than what people say they want
• Local history, memory, and the stories that shape how places are understood

Land, water, and living systems

• Habitat and biodiversity in community landscapes, including pollinators and other wildlife
• Urban waterways’ role in urban ecosystems
• Soils, green infrastructure, and ways of restoring and caring for ecosystems
• How a changing climate affects places, from heat to flooding

Growth and change

• Housing and community models that could fit Central New York
• Land use, zoning, and the ways their effects can be visualized
• How regions change, and how long-range alternatives can be developed and shared
• Information that helps municipalities proactively prepare for new development pressure

Design and practice

• How scientists and designers work together, and what helps or hinders them
• How ideas from ecological design are put into practice, including in business and entrepreneurial projects
• How to teach design to students from other fields through real community projects

Not sure your question fits? Tell us what you are working on, and we will talk through how it could connect to communities and partners. We cannot promise funding or that an idea will become a CCRD project, but, where  appropriate, we can offer introductions, access to interested ESF students, and a shared framework for responsible work.

How we do research

• Our questions connect to Central New York, and many come from what communities and partners tell us.
• Our work is grounded in the Center’s values
• Students take an active part and are credited for their work.
• We share our methods and findings so that others can use and test them.

Outcomes

• Reports and briefs for communities and agencies, and papers, conference presentations, and talks
• Guides to methods and processes, and data summaries and tools that partners can use where appropriate and permitted
• Student theses, capstone projects, and portfolios

Researchers and faculty: If you have a question that connects to Central New York, let us know. Contact Freedom Gupta-Fonner at [email protected] to schedule a meeting with us.