Collaboration with Higher Education

Principal of O’Brien & Gere is a Member of the Board of Visitors 

Assisting with the management of approximately 28,000 acres of campus resources including master planning activities, wetland restoration and stream mitigation activities. Activities include benchmarking and providing consultation to natural resource curriculum development. 

Assisting with geotechnical investigations of karstic features associated with lake restoration activities. 

Working with the College to develop a strategic plan and create a vision for providing the future educational needs in the environmental and energy markets. It involves an evaluation of the present core competencies of the College and applying them as a mechanism to meet future needs in these fields of its educational mission. 

Participated in Career Fairs, hired co-ops and have participated in two separate student reach-out sessions describing careers and job opportunities in the environmental, health and safety profession.

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Hired two interns this past year from The Department of Anthropology and Geography to work on comprehensive mapping (using ArcInfo, GIS) and evaluation techniques associated with the water and wastewater systems located at Stone Mountain Park, which is owned and operated by Stone Mountain Memorial Association in Stone Mountain, GA. Interns also assisted with the University of Georgia, Northwest Precinct Master Planning in Athens, GA.

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Providing two scholarships and a summer internship program

Providing a visiting adjunct professorship at the request of the Director of the Waste Management Institute (Engineering) for the presentation of special topics. It presents students with the opportunity to connect with practitioners in the field of engineering and related sciences.

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Participated in “Duke Frontiers 2007,” an event designed “to help spur research collaborations between Duke’s science faculty and industry.” O’Brien & Gere was represented on the panel by our Director of Corporate Development, who was joined by representatives of IBM, Qualcomm, The Home Depot, and the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The panel was part of a full day program sponsored by Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

Sponsored a summer student co-op from the Pratt School of Engineering.

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Principal of O’Brien & Gere is a Trustee of the University.

O’Brien & Gere and the Drescher Corporation have created a new entity called Warner Energy, and have teamed with Clarkson University to develop a new small wind turbine that can be used in urban and rural areas. By researching ways to improve aerodynamics and developing new electrical generation concepts, the team has moved on to rotor/generator testing to optimize the design of the first full-scale 2.5 kilowatt prototype. The patent for this design is pending.

Provided assistance in the development of a unique career development web site through Clarkson. This internet site provides access to experienced alumni. Corporate partners of the college directly post job openings, gaining access to experienced alumni. Since the corporate partners pay a fee for this access, the web site has become a profit center for the University.

Principals of O’Brien & Gere have served on the School of Engineering’s Advisory Council for over 20 years.

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Source Sentinel, LLC: a collaboration of ESF, O’Brien & Gere and the Sensis Corporation, it has involved the development of a reliable advanced alert technology for water quality management. Using artificial-intelligence technology and continuous real-time online monitoring sensors, the Source Sentinel System not only displays data, but also interprets it to predict problems in water quality. Source Sentinel has successfully operated two real-time water quality monitors for Houston, TX, which has the second largest municipal water system in the U.S.

Catalyst Renewables: The goal of this partnership is to create a refinery to produce ethanol from woody biomass feedstock including forests, agricultural crops, organic residue streams, and dedicated woody or herbaceous crops.

O’Brien & Gere and Honeywell are evaluating a biomass cover as a ground water mitigation technology at Honeywell’s former Solvay, NY facility. This cover, consisting of rapidly growing willow plants, also is being considered as a source of renewable energy, transforming an inactive site into a productive asset.

Provided assistance in the development of a unique career development web site through ESF. This internet site provides access to experienced alumni. Corporate partners of the college directly post job openings, gaining access to experienced alumni. Since the corporate partners pay a fee for this access, the web site has become a profit center for the college.

Support of an endowed chair.

A principal of O’Brien & Gere is a Director of the College Foundation.

Various O’Brien & Gere staff have served as adjunct faculty at the college.

Support was provided for a major research laboratory expansion.

Providing classroom space for use as a remote campus.

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O’Brien & Gere is a founding and charter member of the Center for Excellence for Environmental Systems (CoE). The Syracuse CoE is a partnership of industry and 10 universities, involving numerous public and private sponsors. It was established to promote academia/industry collaboration for the development of innovations in environmental and energy systems. Lee Davis,  President and Chief Operating Officer and Director of the Board of O’Brien & Gere, is the Chairman of the Board for the Syracuse CoE. O’Brien & Gere has been actively engaged in collaborative efforts to commercialize technological products and concepts with a number of academic institutions through the CoE.

Mr. Davis also is an Associate Research Professor at the University.

Since the 1970s, O’Brien & Gere staff have served as adjunct faculty, teaching regularly scheduled courses at the L.C. Smith College of Engineering.

Senior staff at O’Brien & Gere have served and continue to serve on the Advisory Council of the L.C. Smith College of Engineering (formerly the School of Engineering).

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Sponsored two minority interns as part of RPI’s PREFACE Program, which gives high school sophomores from underrepresented and underserved groups the opportunity to experience in a two-week session at RPI what an engineering education can offer them. The primary goal is to enable interested and talented students to explore the opportunities in engineering and engineering-related professions.

Collaboration with the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems, the Center for Future Energy Systems, and the Darrin Freshwater Institute on potential technology opportunities. These are NYSTAR centers; NYSTAR is a state program that “supports technology development, innovation and commercialization leading to economic growth in New York State” with a key goal to “spur economic growth in New York State through academic research and development.”

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In the 1970s and 1980s, O’Brien & Gere collaborated with MVCC in a work-study program that brought students to the firm’s environmental laboratory for positions as laboratory technicians for up to six months.

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