The New York City Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNYC) has announced the recipients of the 2017 Thesis Prizes: Valerie Chengyi Qin, an MFA Lighting Design student who just graduated from the Parsons School of Design at the New School, and Valeria Terentyeva, a MS Lighting student who recently graduated from the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Each of the recipients presented their thesis projects on May 17 and received their $1,000 award during an awards ceremony.
Chengyi Qin’s thesis project—“The Effect of Light on Perception of Time in Healthcare Environments”—evaluates the preoperative waiting areas in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, a location where patients often experience a great deal of anxiety prior to their respective surgical procedures. Lighting plays a crucial role in contributing to the patient’s “…emotional and psychological responses.” This in turn has an impact on recovery time. Chengyi Qin will join New York based lighting design firm Cooley Monato Studio, in June. For inquiries regarding her thesis, she can be reached at qinc687@newschool.edu.
Courtesy IESNYC
2017 IESNYC Thesis Prize presentation. Left to right: Mike Barr, Thesis Prize coordinator; Valeria Terentyeva, Thesis Prize recipient; Brian Belluomini, IESNYC President; Nadarajah Narendran, Professor, Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Russ Leslie, Professor and Lighting Research Center Associate Director, Architecture.
Terentyeva’s thesis project—“Analyzing Theoretical Models for Predicting Thermal Conductivity of Composite Materials for LED Heat Sink Applications”—examines “…the thermal properties of composite materials with respect to their potential to be used for 3D printing of LED heat sinks.” The purpose of this study “…was to explain the behavior of thermal conductivity in polymer and inorganic particle filler composite materials by evaluating theoretical models and comparing their predictions to experimental results.” Terentyeva will start at HLB Lighting Design’s Boston office in July. For inquiries regarding her thesis, she can be reached at valeria.terentyeva@gmail.com.
The IESNYC’s Thesis Prize is designed to recognize the work of “…degree candidates of graduate-level lighting programs in New York State.” This year’s winners showed “….excellence in design and/or research, and represent the intellectual insight, rigor, and quality standards as set forth by their respective school departments and each student’s thesis committee.” Mike Barr, a member of the IESNYC Board of Managers, an account manager at Lutron, and the thesis prize coordinator who organized this year’s program said, “While the presentations are from different areas of focus, they did have some great similarities. Each one identified a real-world problem, which they then studied in depth, pulled it apart to identify all the components, [and] then discovered an innovative solution.”
Brian Belluomini, president of the Section and a principal of Shimstone Design Studio said, “The IESNYC has always been a strong voice for education within the lighting community. The annual Thesis Prize is one way our Section can support future innovators and leaders in the lighting industry.” Other IESNYC education initiatives include the annual student lighting competition, and assistance in administering the Richard Kelly Grant.
