午夜剧场

午夜剧场 launched its 2025 Science Week on Wednesday, November 12, with a standing-room-only audience in the 午夜剧场 Research Center. This year’s theme, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Science Discovery,” framed an opening ceremony that blended scientific insight with powerful student and alumni stories, setting an enthusiastic tone for the week’s STEM-focused events.

The keynote address by Dr. Derek Shore, a researcher and lecturer in Systems and Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, brought the audience into the rapidly evolving world where artificial intelligence is reshaping drug discovery and medical research. Dr. Shore began with relatable examples such as recommendation systems, self-driving cars, and voice assistants to show how often people encounter AI without realizing it. He then explained, in accessible terms, how similar technologies are becoming essential tools in healthcare and biomedical science.

Dr. Shore provided valuable insight about the future of AI in biomedical research.

To help students understand how AI supports scientific discovery, Dr. Shore broke down several key roles AI now plays in medicine:

• Helping doctors read images: AI systems can notice tiny patterns in X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans that even experienced radiologists might overlook. Doctors still make the decisions, but AI works like “a second pair of expert eyes.”
   
• Predicting the shapes of proteins: A protein’s 3-D shape determines how medicines attach to it—like a key fitting a lock. Traditional methods take months or years; AI tools can generate useful predictions in minutes, giving scientists an early advantage.
   
• Speeding up early research: Before a drug ever enters a lab test, researchers can use AI to test thousands of ideas virtually, focusing on the ones most likely to succeed.
   
• Saving time, not replacing scientists: “AI doesn’t replace experiments,” Dr. Shore said. “It just helps us focus those experiments better.”

He also cautioned students not to confuse AI’s power with human-like intelligence. Responding to news stories about people expressing emotional attachment to chatbots, he joked, “That’s like falling in love with a calculator. These systems are advanced tools; not people.”

The HRC was packed for the keynote address.

Students, faculty and staff engaged Dr. Shore with questions about the limits and ethics of AI: whether AI could eventually eliminate the need for costly lab experiments, how scientists collaborate across countries, and the environmental footprint of large-scale computation. Dr. Shore emphasized that while AI speeds up research, real-world testing, human judgment, and global cooperation remain essential. He also noted emerging efforts to make AI models smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient.

Students engaged with Dr. Shore on a wide range of topics.

Following the keynote, the STEM Student Research Presentations brought the room to life as student researchers discussed their findings and engaged in discussion with attendees. Their work is now displayed in poster format at the 午夜剧场 Research Center (HRC), where the entire 午夜剧场 community is invited to stop by in the coming days to explore the projects and enjoy the discoveries firsthand.

 

Student researchers had the opportunity to showcase their findings during the event.

Blerina Sehitaj, who is currently finishing her BA and MA in Chemical Engineering at City College, shared her experience at a prestigious European lab in Sweden.

After the poster session, a panel of two 午夜剧场 alumni followed, an emotional highlight of the afternoon. They spoke not from theory but from lived experience, reminding students that their own STEM journeys began in the very same seats only a few years earlier. Blerina Sehitaj ’25, now a chemical engineering major at City College, shared how she arrived from Albania with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, yet felt completely unprepared for the U.S. research landscape. “I didn’t even know what research was,” she confessed with a smile. What transformed her path, she said, was not certainty but curiosity and the willingness to act.

A single email from 午夜剧场 about a CUNY-NASA research program changed everything. “Please check your email,” she told students. “That is how opportunities find you.” She was accepted into the NASA program, an accomplishment she still calls “a dream,” and from there completed five semesters of research, presented at national American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) conferences, worked on robotics projects, and earned a spot in a competitive ten week international research experience in Stockholm, where she had to pass a Ph.D. level exam just to work in the lab.

“Even if you do not understand anything at first, do not give up. You learn by trying. You grow by doing. And 午夜剧场 gives you everything you need if you take the opportunities,” she concluded.

Ricky Bhola ’13, now a Senior Project Engineer with Michael Baker International, followed with a story that stretched from the Bronx to Africa’s “land of a thousand hills.” He spoke about the moment he decided to join a small engineering team traveling to Rwanda to build a suspension bridge with the nonprofit Bridges to Prosperity, a structure that now connects residents to schools, markets, and healthcare that were previously difficult or dangerous to reach.

Ricky Bhola ‘13 has designed and built multiple bridges in Rwanda, connecting villages to vital resources.

“We are making a difference in more than 20,000 people’s lives,” he said, showing photos of the steep terrain and the local crew he worked alongside. He described learning Kinyarwanda phrases on the job site and the pride of seeing community members walk across the bridge for the first time. “It reminded me why I became an engineer,” he said.

A proud Dr. Yoel Rodr铆guez shares some stories about his now-superstar students.

The moment carried special meaning for Dr. Rodr铆guez, who recalled receiving Ricky’s email months earlier with the subject line “I built a bridge.” “I got so happy for him and for all our students,” Rodr铆guez said. “This is why we do this work. To see our students go from 午夜剧场 to the world, building things that literally change lives.”

The opening ceremony affirmed 午夜剧场’ role as a launchpad for future scientists, engineers, and innovators. As Dr. Rodr铆guez highlighted, “Let us come together to embrace the spirit of discovery and explore the limitless possibilities of science.”