Around 40 students gathered in the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center (C4) fireside lounge on Friday afternoon to hear Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger discuss his former research as a chemical engineer and the skills he gained from it.

The event was hosted by Dickinson Research Team (DiRT), the Dickinson Community program where residents can learn about and conduct research under School of Management and Dickinson Community collegiate professor Kimberly Jaussi. The conversation was part of DiRT’s Research Rap series, an event that started last year in which the group invites professors to speak about their personal research and the value of academic investigation.

Once Stenger heard about the program, he asked Jaussi if he could speak about the research he had done as a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a professor at Lehigh University.

“One day, Harvey visited to look around DiRT and see what was happening and he heard about the raps,” Jaussi said. “He said that he would love to do one of them. I figured, what a great way to see a whole other side of the president.”

Stenger spoke about his diverse array of research throughout his years, including his investigation into how salt can create and alter colors in chocolate candy, how to turn carbon-based gases into liquid fuels to run machines and how to make solar energy-powered cars. He brought up the important qualities, development and traits a person can get from researching.

“The ability to [fall] forward, the ability to be patient, the ability to be flexible, the ability to be empowered is something a person can’t get just from a classroom,” Stenger said. “In classes, you can get the answers in the back of the book and you write a paper that’s just a summary of another paper. You don’t create something that’s inside of you. Students get that from research, from programs like DiRT.”

Stenger also talked about the benefit of interdisciplinary research and exploration, as well as what the University plans on doing to expand student involvement in this area.

“We need to create spaces and opportunities where you can bring your assets to a problem and help solve it,” Stenger said. “We have two projects we’re working on now. One is Nuthatch Hollow, a ‘living building’ that has to create more benefits for Earth and people than it would take away. About 100 students and faculty are working on ideas for it now. The second one is the innovation lab. The concept is that we would create a very flexible space where students can come in, have conversations and solve problems.”

Emily Kuehnle, an undeclared freshman, said she enjoyed what she had heard from Stenger in the past and came to the event in order to find out more about his experiences before becoming president at BU. She said she was intrigued by his assessment of failure.

“When he talked about embracing failure, that really stuck out to me,” Kuehnle said. “I definitely think it is a good mindset to have, because everyone is going to fail and it’s hard when you are in the process of failing, but to have that outlook post-failure is definitely a good trait to carry with you in life.”