Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration is home to Blair's technology and fine arts departments and the building's open-architecture, technology-rich academic center is unlike any other campus facility. With classes in everything from robotics to ceramics throughout the day, and club meetings and community gatherings in the evenings and on weekends, the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s well-equipped classrooms and flexible, comfortable meeting spaces are constantly abuzz.
Below, several students and teachers to share their experiences in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, a venue designed to inspire creativity and facilitate hands-on, collaborative learning. Their impressions give the entire Blair community a view into the activities taking place within the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's glass-walled spaces—and a glimpse at how these activities continue to build on the best of Blair’s academic and community traditions.
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center is awesome. I love how the glass walls let you see outside the classrooms and how they let people peek in as they walk by—it will be great for prospective students, as they will be able to easily see what we're doing in class!
This is a really cool building. It's the perfect place to study because there's plenty of room, we can talk and eat, and there are places to meet with a group or just work on your own. The first night I had Chiang-Elghanayan Center manager duty, almost 100 kids signed in to study, and they used every area of the facility, from the art studio on the third floor to the maker space in the basement.
My ceramics and sculpture students got their hands a little messy during their first week in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, but I front-loaded some technology instruction, too, to help them begin thinking about how they might use the 3D printer, laser cutter and vinyl cutter to enhance their pottery and sculpture projects. We used the software packages I researched during the Faculty Summer Institute and learned more about the capabilities of our new technology as we worked.
In addition to debugging some of the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's new equipment and software, I had the pleasure of kicking off my AP computer science and artificial intelligence courses in a dedicated and well-equipped technology classroom, as well as engaging with kids during evening duty as they acclimate to the new facility and explore how they might use it for curricular and co-curricular projects.
Even before the school year started, Chiang-Elghanayan Center student managers came to me with a great plan for open houses. They wanted to get as many community members as possible into the Chiang-Elghanayan Center right away, to help everyone feel comfortable there and learn their way around.
Although I don't have any classes in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, I volunteered to be a student manager because I'm excited about the prospect of the new building. As soon as it opened, we took a tour with [Head of School] Mr. Fortunato, who explained that our job is to learn how to use all the equipment in the maker space and throughout the building so we can help others. Safety is our first priority.
Everything in the technology classroom is high tech! The projector is like those I've seen in college classrooms, and it is amazing that we have that technology in high school. I'm used to taking technology classes in the basement of Timken Library. In the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, the classroom is wide open and has a very different feeling—much freer and lighter. We can really observe what our classmates are doing, no matter where we are in the room.
The openness of the robotics classroom is especially profound because people will actually be able to see the progress robotics students are making. I took robotics last year and want to stay involved this year with a project of my own. As a Chiang-Elghanayan Center student manager on Friday nights, I hope to make that happen.
This ground-floor laboratory/workshop provides “messy space” for creation, invention and learning. It brings the capabilities of the well-used Park Street maker space to the heart of campus, opening up new opportunities for hands-on project work.
The maker space includes the following equipment:
Laser engraving system, which engraves, cuts and marks all types of materials, up to 40 x 28 inches
Vinyl cutter, which creates images and signage using a computer-controlled plotter that cuts vinyl for transfer to walls, windows, banners and fabric
Dye sublimation print system, which creates transfers on heat-resistant paper for digital decorating of plastic, cards, paper or fabric
Wide-format color printer that creates photo-quality prints up to 11 x 17 inches
3D scanner that creates digital 3D models of real-world objects
Three 3D printers that produce 3D parts using ABS or PLA plastic
An electronics workstation where students can assemble and test electronic components, including arduino, LEDs, sensors and motors
Power and hand tools, including a band saw, sliding compound miter saw, jig saw, Dremel, hand drill, sander, wire cutters, wrenches and more
A signature space in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, the Forum is a large, central, semi-circular open area with an atrium ceiling that extends to the second floor. Furnished with white boards and comfortable, modular seating, it is ringed by windows that provide views to the landscaping outside, as well as views into the conference and team rooms that surround it. Effectively sized and technology-rich, the space is easily configurable for large and small classes, meetings and seminars, and is home to our renowned Society of Skeptics lectures, as well as offering convening space for full faculty meetings, student organizations, and programs that connect alumni, students, faculty and members of the surrounding community.
A first-floor, glass-walled classroom and a smaller, second-floor lab, each fully equipped with Macintosh computers, industry-current Adobe Creative Cloud software and video/audio production equipment, are devoted to independent and fine arts class digital media projects. Critical communication, storytelling and narrative skills are highlighted as students leverage filmmaking and production technology in these centrally located and easily accessible labs.
The first-floor media lab features five digital audio workstations that are equipped with LogicPro X, a professional music editing and producing software; Finale, a professional musical notation software; and full 88-key MIDI keyboards that can be programmed with virtually any sound imaginable. Students enrolled in Blair’s digital music/songwriting class record original compositions on multiple tracks in the recording studio (located adjacent to the media lab), then transfer these compositions to the media lab for editing, mixing and final production.
Two dedicated classrooms on the second floor house computer science, robotics and engineering classes. Students do not need to set up/break down projects at the start and end of every class, and they can work on their projects during free time. Blair’s robotics team meets after school and competes during the fall and winter months; in recent years, the team has won the Cliffside Cliffhanger competition.
Blair’s recording studio is immediately adjacent to the first-floor media lab; here, students record their original compositions on multiple tracks, which can then be transferred to the media lab for editing and mixing. Students enrolled in Blair’s digital music/songwriting class use to this equipment to write, record, and produce their original compositions.
The photo studio and green screen room provide space for students to test controlled photo and video shots with specific needs in mind. From the control room next door, lighting and audio input levels can be adjusted, and the studio is equipped with several professional-grade lighting setups for a variety of project requirements. Blair’s photographers and videographers have the opportunity to take their creativity to the next level while leveraging the best tools in the business.
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s third floor is dedicated to fine arts instruction, and the central space is occupied by an open, airy studio. The space is flooded with natural light pouring through large windows and skylights; surrounding classrooms are glass-walled to allow for light and promote active collaboration. The architecture classroom is equipped with drawing tables, white boards, an audiovisual system and all the tools necessary for drafting and design. Across the studio, the digital photography classroom is furnished with spacious worktables, a photo printer and ample display areas for student work. The space is open to students who want to do artwork during their free blocks, evening hours and weekends.
A ceramics studio is located on the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s ground floor. Fully equipped for all manner of ceramics projects, the studio boasts 14 potter’s wheels, two electric kilns, a raku kiln, a Bailey Pugmill and an audiovisual system. Students working in the ceramics studio also have access to the full array of tools in the adjacent maker space.
Peter Curran
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration brings the Blair community together in myriad ways, every day of the week. When students and teachers gather for a Skeptics lecture in the Forum, an evening seminar in a conference room, or an art or technology class in any of the well-equipped classrooms, connections, learning and deeper relationships result.
Peter G. Curran, Head of School
Nathan Molteni
This is the first academic space at Blair that is open, where you can literally walk into the midst of intellectual discourse. The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration emphasizes what we've always said about learning at Blair: that it extends beyond the walls of the classroom. The creation of classrooms without walls and classrooms with transparent walls is a visual representation of what is happening intellectually.
Nathan Molteni, Dean of Academics
Marianne Lieberman
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration is everything we are at Blair. Its glass-walled and light-filled spaces promote teamwork and allow all the more for the development of the relationships on which we pride ourselves.
MARIANNE LIEBERMAN ’79, Blair Trustee & Task Force Committee Member
L1NKUP, as described by John, is a smart wristband that is programmed into Blair’s door locking system and payment function. The wristband, made of rubber and plastic, is durable and waterproof so it can be worn 24/7
Every Friday night, 13 Blair students and three Blair faculty members gather in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration over pizza and snacks to examine what it feels like to belong, both in the Blair community and beyond, and what students can do to promote that feeling among others.
Thanks to the exceptional support of loyal alumni K. Thomas Elghanayan ’62 and Frederick Elghanayan ’66, Blair’s dynamic academic hub is newly co-named the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration.
More than 20 Blair students have taken advantage of an opportunity to dive deep into human rights issues by joining a project- and inquiry-based seminar
Although it is used by a wide range of classes during the academic day, the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s maker space is open to the entire Blair community for use in the afternoons, evenings and on weekends. Student projects run the gamut from simple T-shirts produced by the dye sublimation system to complex design projects that begin on a computer and come to life using 3D printers, the laser engraving system or the vinyl cutter.
Blair Academy is pleased to welcome Dr. Benjamin Schwartz P’21 to the Society of Skeptics on October 9. Dr. Schwartz is a specialist in gynecologic oncology and minimally invasive surgery, and his Skeptics presentation, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration, will focus on his experience with the daVinci® Surgical System and how robotic surgery is shaping the future of healthcare.
Several teachers and administrators enrolled in two sessions of Blair’s Summer Faculty Institute, which aimed to restructure two longstanding classes at Blair—chemistry and western civilization—as well as design a new introductory science research course and explore additional areas of growth for Blair’s science department.
More than 50 administrators and technology staff from private secondary schools across the US traveled to Blair Academy for the annual edAccess Conference
Classics teacher Christopher Sheppard’s Latin 4 class has taken advantage of the technology and modern studio space in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration for a project rooted in past millennia: the translation and analysis of ancient texts.