NYC Education News

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LaGuardia Community College Gets $4M for Arts Upgrades

LaGuardia Community College has received $4 million in New York City capital funding to renovate and modernize its arts and media facilities in Queens. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. and City Council Member Julie Won each allocated $2 million toward the project, which is expected to leverage matching New York State funding and generate approximately $8 million in total investment. Planned improvements include upgrades to theaters, television production facilities, student learning spaces, production labs and dressing rooms. The project will also modernize lighting, electrical, communications, HVAC and other building systems while improving accessibility. The investment will support students studying theater, film and television, and music performance while strengthening the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center as a cultural destination in western Queens.

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NYU Langone Tests AI to Detect Heart Transplant Rejection

NYU Langone Health researchers are studying whether artificial intelligence can help identify heart transplant rejection while reducing the need for invasive biopsies. Researchers trained AI models using thousands of EKG readings from adult heart transplant recipients and combined the heart rhythm data with results from two blood biomarkers used to assess rejection risk. In a separate test group of 38 transplant recipients, the combined model correctly identified 94% of patients who were not experiencing rejection, according to the study. Researchers said the approach could potentially spare some patients from unnecessary heart biopsies while helping physicians identify rejection earlier. The team plans to test the model in more patients across multiple transplant centers before determining its broader clinical usefulness.

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Baruch Gets $776K Federal Grant to Expand AI Education

Baruch College has received $776,033 in first-year federal funding to expand artificial intelligence education and applied learning across its three schools. The Title III Strengthening Institutions Program award will support Baruch's AI Leadership Initiative, including curriculum development, faculty and staff training, student services and preparation for an increasingly AI-enabled workforce. Funding will also expand the college's AI Learning Commons and advance its Applied Intelligence Lab, where students will be able to participate in supervised projects and experiential learning. Baruch plans to incorporate responsible AI use into its curriculum, including evaluating AI-generated content, identifying misinformation and bias, protecting privacy and understanding when human judgment should take precedence. The initiative was launched in spring 2026.

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NYC Begins $17.8M Brooklyn Music School Renovation

New York City has started a $17.8 million renovation of a historic Cobble Hill firehouse that will become the first permanent home of the Noel Pointer Foundation. The 6,000-square-foot building at 299 DeGraw Street, originally constructed in 1857, will be transformed into a modern music education facility with soundproofed lesson rooms, a recording studio, music library, gallery, ensemble space and courtyard. The foundation provides music education and performance opportunities to young people across the five boroughs and currently serves more than 2,000 children annually. Its new Brooklyn headquarters will support expanded after-school, weekend and summer programs while restoring significant elements of the former Engine Company 204 firehouse. Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2028.

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NY Expands Free College to Adults With Prior Degrees

New York is expanding its free community college initiative to allow adults ages 25 to 55 who already have a college degree to return to SUNY or CUNY for a free associate degree in a high-demand field. Beginning with the Spring 2027 semester, eligible New Yorkers will be able to pursue programs in areas such as cybersecurity, engineering, advanced manufacturing and other growing industries without paying tuition, fees, books or required supplies. The expansion removes a previous restriction that generally limited the program to adults without a college degree. More than 15,000 adult learners have participated since the initiative launched in 2025, according to the Governor's announcement. Applications under the expanded eligibility rules are expected to open through individual SUNY and CUNY campuses over the coming months.

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NYC Expands Free Child Care to 10,000 More Children

New York City will expand free child care to more than 10,000 children by beginning to move families off the city's child care voucher waitlist. The expansion is supported by $1.2 billion in state funding for New York City's child care initiatives, including $475 million designated for child care vouchers. Over the coming weeks, the Administration for Children's Services will begin inviting families on the waitlist to apply, with eligible families receiving vouchers that can cover care at a provider of their choice. The city has also updated its online child care map, allowing parents to search licensed programs and identify providers that accept vouchers. Families will be invited to apply on a rolling basis over the next several months.

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CUNY Gets $1.5M for Paid STEM Research Program

CUNY has received $1.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to extend its Transfer to STEM Student Success program for another three years. The initiative supports students moving from CUNY community colleges into STEM bachelor's degree programs at City College, Hunter College, Lehman College and Queens College. The renewed funding is expected to provide research and professional development opportunities to 84 transfer students over the grant period. Participants who complete a full year receive $7,000 and take part in workshops, faculty-mentored summer research and a university-wide symposium. The program, launched in 2023, has already provided year-long experiences and laboratory research opportunities to more than 100 students.

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NYU Launches NYC Center to Study Microplastics and Health

NYU has launched a new research center bringing engineers and medical researchers together to study the health and environmental effects of plastics and develop safer materials. The NYC Center for Healthier Plastic Solutions is a joint initiative of NYU Tandon School of Engineering and NYU Grossman School of Medicine and is described by NYU as the first U.S. research center dedicated to addressing the full range of health and environmental threats posed by plastics. Researchers will develop and test hundreds of new plastic formulations, including non-petroleum materials, while using artificial intelligence to analyze results and identify promising alternatives. The initiative is supported by more than a dozen active NYU Grossman research projects and nearly $20 million in funding underway in 2026.

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NYU Langone Uses AI to Improve Radiology Training

NYU Langone Health researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based approach designed to identify gaps in radiology residents' clinical training and provide personalized teaching cases. The system tracked the types of conditions residents encountered during their regular clinical work and identified important pathologies they had seen less frequently. Researchers then used ChatGPT-4o to help select three to five supplemental cases for each resident, which appeared alongside their regular clinical work and were reviewed with supervising physicians. The study found that the AI could identify exposure gaps and recommend needed case pathologies with more than 90% accuracy. Researchers say the approach could eventually be expanded to additional radiology specialties.