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Student Scientists Spend a Rewarding Summer Making Neighborhoods Safer
The 2026 CS3 cohort, from left: Randy Amparo, Dylan Heslop, Mahfoudh Senhoury, Mohammed Chowdhury, and Vedant Sundriyal.
August 21, 2026
Five Lehman students had an unforgettable summer of intensive research, mentorship, and teamwork through the Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3), a multimillion-dollar National Science Foundation-funded initiative that offers paid summer learning experiences at partner institutions in New York, New Jersey, and Florida.
CS3's mission is to research and develop technologies that make urban streets safer and neighborhoods more livable, with New York City as one of three test beds. Since the program’s inception in 2022, Lehman has been a key member of the consortium, along with Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Columbia, Rutgers, and the University of Central Florida.
Randy Amparo, Mahfoudh Senhoury, Vedant Sundriyal, and Dylan Heslop spent nine weeks at FAU's Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE) lab, and Mohammed Chowdhury did a 10-week research internship in Columbia University’s SURE program. The five were featured on the CS3 website earlier in the summer.
For his second stint in CS3, senior Mohammed Chowdhury teamed with engineering faculty at Columbia to combine sensing technologies like thermal imaging and radar in a way that maintains privacy. In addition to working with the sensors, he learned how to design his own experiments, collect data, and analyze his results.
“Students must have experiences like this,” Chowdhury said. “It gives them an opportunity to look beyond the classroom and see themselves contributing to something meaningful that they can be proud of.”
At FAU, junior Dylan Heslop worked with a CS3 faculty mentor and students to create a system enabling users to search for specific video content by asking questions.
“What I liked the most was the ability to learn and work with some really smart individuals such as my mentor and my teammates,” he said. As important as the technical skills were, he also learned about the process of experimentation, including the importance of documentation, "and not being afraid of failing, because you learn from each failure,” he said.
Heslop’s group won “Best Presentation” at FAU’s end-of-summer wrap-up.
Paid research programs like CS3 are vital to students pursuing STEM careers, Heslop said, “so that they find out what it is like to work as a researcher, receive a stipend that can help them pay for college, and explore careers.”
“I would never have considered grad school or doing research before this experience,” he added. With CS3 under his belt, he has significantly expanded his career options.
For more information about CS3 and other STEM summer research programs, contact the Office of Prestigious Awards.