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Introducing Our 2022 STEM Teaching Fellows

POSTED ON: February 16, 2022

STEM Teaching Fellows

Left to right: Sangjoon (Bob) Lee ChE’23, Reagan Smith ChE’23, and Brandon Bunt BSE’22

Three engineering students, Reagan Smith ChE’23, Sangjoon (Bob) Lee ChE’23, and Brandon Bunt BSE’22, were selected to be the 2022 STEM Teaching Fellows. The students will teach a Summer STEM course inspired by their interests in engineering and community service, and this spring, they will participate in workshops on teamwork, project management, engineering pedagogy, and evaluation and assessment. 

Reagan Smith ChE’23
Reagan Smith is a junior majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in bioengineering. She is from South Carolina and developed a love for teaching and mentoring during her time as captain of her high school’s First Robotics Competition (FRC) team. She recently taught a Robotics Crash Course for Cooper Union’s 2021 Summer STEM session, and for Cooper’s first-year engineering and design course (EID101) on Translating Neuroscience Research into Educational Tools this past fall semester. 

Reagan has a passion for combining sustainability with the biomedical industry and encouraging the creative aspects of engineering. She has experience working with a range of different biomaterials, including a project that developed SCOBY bandages. Biomaterials is an expansive topic, and Reagan is excited to see what new applications and ideas her students will come up with this summer. Reagan will be teaching Biomaterials Design for 9th and 10th grade high school students.

Sangjoon (Bob) Lee ChE’23
Bob Lee is a junior majoring in chemical engineering. He was born in Korea and lived in Malaysia and Vietnam before moving to New York City to attend The Cooper Union. Bob enjoys playing basketball and learning about new cultures and languages. He is the founder of two startup technology businesses. Bob’s project is inspired by his experiences as a programming language instructor and his current involvement in computational chemistry and biomaterials research projects. Bob will be teaching Computer-Aided Drug Design for 9th and 10th grade high school students.

Brandon Bunt BSE’22
Brandon Bunt is a senior majoring in general engineering. He is a New York City native interested in jazz, printmaking, philosophy, running, and scuba diving. As a lead for the Cooper Union Sustainable Agriculture Project, Brandon works with students and staff from every area of Cooper Union as well as neighbors in the East Village, including the Loisaida Center. Brandon’s project is inspired by his work and interests in decentralization, retrofitting, alternative energy, and design. Brandon will be teaching Next Gen Construction Materials for 9th and 10th grade high school students.

Learn more about Summer STEM 2022 at cooper.edu/summerstem.

More News from The Cooper Union

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.