THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

Welcome back to Shoop’s Stoop! The start of a new academic year marks a renewal, a continuation of a journey of learning, exploration, and growth. I want to share some of the things that happened over the summer in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering since our last update in June.

On Monday, September 5, I had the sad duty to inform our engineering faculty, staff, and students that Professor Vito Guido had suddenly passed away. Vito was a larger-than-life presence in the School of Engineering since joining Cooper as an assistant professor in 1979. In addition to his research and teaching, most recently, he served as the George Fox Chair of Civil Engineering leading the Department of Civil Engineering. This past year, he was instrumental in re-imagining course scheduling to allow for block scheduling which has facilitated more interdisciplinary learning. For the first time last year, one of the Civil Engineering capstone projects included students from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Vito was respected by colleagues and revered by his students. He was a gentle giant – his stature equally matched by the size of his heart. While an exceptional Civil Engineer by discipline and training, he was truly a “civil” engineer in every sense of the word. He was a staunch advocate for students, a valued colleague to faculty and staff across The Cooper Union, and a friend. He will be deeply missed.

Our Summer Study Abroad Program continues to grow. This summer we sent 12 engineering students to five different countries including Guatemala, Singapore, Germany, Iceland, and Spain.

An important focus for Academic Year 2023 is on student success and support. The week of August 15th was the inaugural launch of Cooper’s Help for Engineering Student Success (CHESS). This was a week-long, online course taught by Cooper Engineering tutors covering foundational disciplinary topics in math, chemistry, physics, and computer science. CHESS also included course topics such as study skills, time management, and mental health. This journey began in the fall semester of 2021 during a faculty open forum, Nathaniel Kingsbury EE’22, a math tutor, asked if there could be more done to support students struggling in math. His comment was insightful, “It isn’t that they don’t understand calculus, it’s that they don’t have the necessary foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and trigonometry that they should have gotten in high school.” In March of the spring semester, Associate Dean Savizky, Associate Dean Shay, and I assembled a group of our best tutors including Nathaniel Kingsbury EE’22, Sanjna Rao ChE ’22, Brandon Ho EE ’22, and Jonathan Lam EE ’22, and began meeting regularly to discuss challenges that the tutors had identified in foundational high school preparation and developed topical coverage and a curriculum for this summer course. The final lineup of instructors included Nathaniel Kingsbury EE’22 and Catherine Van West EE’24 reviewing math, Nada Shetewi ChE’24 reviewing chemistry, Abduhla Ali EE’25 and Emma Cohen BSE ’24 reviewing physics, and Catherine Van West EE’24 and Jacob Koziej EE’25 reviewing computer science. With 52 first-year registrants (42% of the incoming class), the students were assigned to one of two groups. The schedule for the course is shown here.
 
In preparation for teaching, each of the facilitators taught a class that was observed and critiqued by their peers and deans. We conducted a pre-CHESS survey that asked the students to self-assess their familiarity and preparedness with topics covered in the course and followed with a post-CHESS survey to solicit feedback on the content and conduct of the course. We will also be following-up with these students later in the fall semester after they have had some actual experience with the rigors of the Cooper curriculum to ask if they have any additional insights or thoughts on the CHESS Program.

In late June, we had five faculty members attend the 2022 Institute on Project-Based Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Cooper Union team comprised of Professors David Wootton, Michelle Rosen, J.B. Koo, Sven Haverkamp, and Michael Giglia. I will note that this is the first time we have included adjunct faculty in our summer professional development.

In addition, this summer we had seven full-time faculty members representing each of our four ABET degree-granting majors collaborate on a project to reimage the interdisciplinary capstone experience. This group investigated the possibility of developing interdisciplinary capstone projects that incorporate students and faculty from more than one engineering discipline. This approach more closely models industry where engineers are expected to work collaboratively with experts in several different technical and non-technical domains. Topics addressed during this summer effort included benchmarking of best practices of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary capstone design and implementation; the practical extent of the interdisciplinarity; faculty participation model that ensures faculty engagement from the multiple disciplines participating; integration of project management, ethics, teamwork, group dynamics, and other professional skills; course objectives; course scheduling; assessment; and possible industry engagement. The faculty team developed a prototype for an interdisciplinary capstone course that is being piloted this academic year. Early indicators are promising – in the mechanical engineering capstone course, there are a total of 13 project teams of which 9 are interdisciplinary and include students and faculty from electrical engineering, civil engineering, and architecture.

We also have some changes in departmental leadership this academic year. Professor Mili Shah is now Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Professor Ben Davis is Professor and Ensinger Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Professor Cosmas Tzavelis is now Professor and George Fox Chair of Civil Engineering.

At the start of the Fall Semester, Brittany Corn-Agostini joined the Department of Physics as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, has 10 years of industry experience in the financial sector and her area of specialization is in quantum mechanics. With Brittany’s addition, we will have now added eight new tenure-track faculty members to the full-time faculty in the School of Engineering. In 2018, our tenure-track faculty was 18% female and, with the addition of Brittany, our on-hand tenure-track faculty is now 38% female. We are now gearing up to conduct a search for two civil engineering tenure-track faculty members.

On September 12, the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report rankings were released. The school has sustained its overall ranking of #9 in Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs where a doctorate is not offered. In the Regional Colleges North category, Cooper continues to be #1 Best Value Schools, #2 in Regional Colleges North, tied for #1 Most Innovative Schools, tied #6 for Best Undergraduate Teaching. To identify colleges where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates from racial or ethnic groups different from their own, U.S. News also conducts demographic analysis to produce a diversity index ranging from 0 to 1. The closer a school's number is to 1, the more diverse the student population. Among Regional Colleges North, Cooper Union’s index was 0.68 placing it in a tie for #5 where the top score was 0.74.

In other exciting news, Professor JB Koo, our newest Electrical Engineering faculty member who joined us in August 2021 from Intel Corporation, has negotiated with NYDesign. The facility supports microelectronic circuit fabrication for universities through industry partners like Google, IBM, SkyWater and efabless, among others. NYDesign has agreed to provide three tape-outs of 130 nm CMOS technology, one each in January, February, and April of 2023. Each of these individually would cost roughly $10k so this amounts to nearly $30k worth of industry-based microelectronic circuit fabrication experience for our electrical engineering students.

Recently, I have focused on securing the necessary funding to launch the new Computer Science Program and several months ago, with the help of Lou Manzione one of our trustees, I began an engagement with Bell Labs. Part of that engagement resulted in their donation of a stereo microscope, several high-performance oscilloscopes, a spectrum analyzer, and a function generator. In addition, the President of Bell Labs, Peter Vetter, will come to Cooper Union on October 27th to engage with faculty and students and give a lecture to the IEEE Student Branch. Additionally, I have had very promising meetings with the Director of the Simons Foundation Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Mathematics and the new head of the machine learning group to discuss the possibility of a joint Computer Science faculty appointment, similar to the one Professor Alice Pisani holds with the Center for Computational Astrophysics at Flatiron.

Finally, I encourage you to take some time to read the articles included in this newsletter. This is by far the largest newsletter to date, an indication of the vibrancy of all that is going on in the School of Engineering.

Thank you again for sharing your valuable time with me on Shoop’s Stoop! It’s an exciting time to be part of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. I look forward to sharing additional updates in future editions.

Barry L. Shoop, Ph.D., P.E.  |  Dean of Engineering  |  Albert Nerken School of Engineering

Welcome back to Shoop’s Stoop! We successfully completed yet another academic year and I want to share some of the exciting things that happened in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering since our last update.

This year we had a total of 92 undergraduate and 42 graduate students graduate from the School of Engineering. For our undergraduates, this included 23 Chemical Engineers, 18 Civil Engineers, 31 Electrical Engineers, 16 Mechanical Engineers, and 4 General Engineers. In addition to the undergraduate degrees, members of this graduating class were awarded a total of 45 minors: 6 Math Minors, 22 Computer Science Minors, 11 Bioengineering Minors, and 6 HSS Minors.

Our fall 2022 incoming first-year class is again very strong. We admitted 123 students into the Class of 2026. There will be 27 students majoring in Chemical Engineering, 31 in Civil, 31 in Electrical, 25 in Mechanical, and 9 in General Engineering. Women comprise 50% of this class … let me say that again … WOMEN COMPRISE 50% OF THIS CLASS! Additionally, 11% of this class identify as underrepresented minorities, 22% self-identified as the first in their family to attend college and 7% of the class is international. Qualitatively, this class includes students who have conducted research in quantum computing and bioengineering, filed a patent at the NIH, and performed at Carnegie Hall. They are builders, inventors, and problem-solvers: from designing a guitar that changes colors depending on the sound waves' frequency to building a bike-powered washing machine to designing a prosthetic arm. They are competitors in chess, debate, badminton, soccer, e-sports, and robotics. This class is community-driven and seeks to make an impact by volunteering as EMTs and junior firefighters, interning for city and state representatives, working in nursing homes, and making PPE for frontline workers during the pandemic. In their applications, students shared deep discussions around clean energy and sustainability, the pandemic, and thoughtful conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly related to STEM.

Our students continue to be amazing. Our students Naomi Akiyama ChE’23 and Caitlin Noonan ChE’25 took 1st Place at the AlChE Mid-Atlantic Regional Undergraduate Research Competition, our Solar Decathlon Team won the Excellence in Industry Engagement Award at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2022 Design Challenge Competition, Faith Lin EE’24 was selected for State Department Information Technology Fellowship, Lionel Gilliar-Schoenenberger CE’23 and Qasim Akhlaq CE’23 Awarded Moles Scholarship, and our Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) Team received the Rookie of the Year award and placed 4th for Self-Drive performance and 5th for Self-Drive design in the 29th Annual IGVC Competition. Read more about each of these in this newsletter.

In fall 2022, we will add another new tenure-track faculty member to our ranks. Brittany Corn-Agostini will join the Department of Physics as an Assistant Professor. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, has 10-years of industry experience in the financial sector and her area of specialization is in quantum mechanics. With Brittany’s addition, we will have added eight new tenure-track faculty to the full-time faculty in the School of Engineering. In September, we will begin a search for a civil engineering tenure-track faculty member.

This summer we will have five faculty members attend the 2022 Institute on Project-Based Learning, June 21-24, 2022 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Professors David Wootton, Michelle Rosen, J.B. Koo, Sven Haverkamp, and Michael Giglia comprise the Cooper Union team.

In addition, this summer we have seven full-time faculty members representing each of our four ABET degree-granting majors collaborating on a project to reimage the interdisciplinary capstone experience. This group is investigating the possibility of developing interdisciplinary capstone projects that incorporate students and faculty from more than one engineering discipline. This approach more closely models industry where engineers are expected to work collaboratively with experts in several different technical and non-technical domains. The faculty team are investigating the feasibility of introducing interdisciplinary capstone projects at the Cooper Union and are developing a prototype for an interdisciplinary capstone course that can be piloted during Academic Year 2023. Topics to be addressed during this summer’s effort include but are not limited to benchmarking of best practices of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary capstone design and implementation; the practical extent of the interdisciplinarity; faculty participation model that ensures faculty engagement from the multiple disciplines participating; integration of project management, ethics, teamwork, group dynamics, and other professional skills; course objectives; course scheduling; assessment; and possible industry engagement.

Thank you again for sharing your valuable time with me on Shoop’s Stoop! You should know that these are just a few of the highlights – the tips of the waves – of activities in the School of Engineering. It’s an exciting time to be part of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. I look forward to sharing additional updates in future editions of Shoop’s Stoop!
 

 
Barry L. Shoop, Ph.D., P.E.  |  Dean of Engineering  |  Albert Nerken School of Engineering

Greetings from the East Village and welcome to the latest Shoop’s Stoop!

Our students and faculty continue to do amazing things! I encourage you to take the time to read all the articles in this newsletter. They include student activities and successes, faculty contributions and accomplishments, curricular initiatives, and alumni activities.

One of the exciting things to report is that at the end of December, we received notification that the Albert Nerken School of Engineering was selected by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) for its Bronze-level recognition, the highest level issued in this application cycle, as part of the ASEE Diversity Recognition Program (ADRP). The program was established to publicly recognize engineering and engineering technology colleges that make significant, measurable progress in increasing the diversity, inclusion, and degree attainment outcomes of their programs. This is an external peer review and recognition from ASEE confirming our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion and inspires us to continue to improve the climate we are striving for at Cooper.

After nearly a year effort, we have published a new Research Brochure that highlights eight research concentration areas: Bioengineering; Materials and Fluids; Autonomy, Control, and Cyber-Physical Systems; Machine Learning, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence; Theoretical and Computational Science; Signal Processing and Communications; and Pedagogy. Our website has been updated with the new research brochure content so I would encourage you to visit it and take a look!  This provides important strategic communication to both undergraduate and graduate admissions candidates, potential external collaborators, our accreditors, and even to our own students who are interested in pursuing research with our faculty.

We have had a focus this year on student success. Previously, Associate Dean Ruben Savizky developed the Academic Resource Center (ARC) which provides an umbrella for the tutoring program in the School of Engineering. He also initiated a First-Year Seminar Series that has content including but not limited to time management, dealing with stress, what is engineering, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In January, we identified a physical space that we will dedicate to the tutoring program that also provides an opportunity for mentoring through some of our professional societies. In cooperation with several of our very best tutors, we are also developing a week-long online summer program for incoming first-year engineering students to help them make the transition from high school to the rigors of Cooper. The intent is to provide some disciplinary review of high school math, chemistry, physics, and computer science while also including topics with an overview of the academic program, study skills, time management, and mental health resources.

Finally, earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the 2022 American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE) Engineering Dean’s Institute (EDI). This was a gathering of nearly 200 engineering Deans from across the country. EDI provides an opportunity for engineering deans - and only deans - to gather and discuss the crucial issues facing their schools, colleges, and profession. For a few days, a single-stream program fosters dialogue between deans, industry leaders, and those in important roles in research and government. Deans share best practices, learn about career prospects for their graduates, and develop a voice for engineering education and the role of engineering in society. The major areas of discussion included diversity, equity, and inclusion, including more ethics in the engineering curriculum, the emerging role of engineers in addressing climate change, and future directions of engineering research. The keynote address by Dr. Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and CEO, discussed both the importance of industry engagement and the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), Cloud Computing and Quantum Computing. The good news is that our staff and faculty have already been discussing many of these topics, so the Albert Nerken School of Engineering is at the forefront of engineering programs!

Thank you again for sharing your valuable time with me on Shoop’s Stoop! It continues to be an exciting time to be part of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. I look forward to sharing additional updates in future editions.

 
Barry L. Shoop, Ph.D., P.E.  |  Dean of Engineering  |  Albert Nerken School of Engineering

As we quickly approach the end of Fall Semester 2021, I ask that you again join me on Shoop’s Stoop where I share some of the great things happening in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering.

The fall semester began with a palpable feeling of relief, excitement, and promise as we returned to in-person learning in 41 Cooper Square. Students, faculty, and staff have all been thankful to return to a sense of normal, albeit with masks and weekly testing. The classrooms, labs, shops, and makerspaces have all been humming and even with the masks, you could sense smiles on everyone’s faces!

With the return to in-person learning I have returned to my classroom visitation routine. I have been visiting classes across the school as a way to observe the wide variety of teaching techniques and pedagogies being used, better understand the curriculum, and provide feedback from my nearly 30-years of higher education experience. I had the opportunity to refresh my memory on topics including Lagrange multipliers, P=NP? problem or Turing machines, adiabatic, isothermal, and other thermodynamic processes and the Carnot cycle, computation of settlement and diffusion in environmental systems and others – it was epic! I am happy to share that I observed a lot of active, student-centered, project-based learning as well as effective teaching pedagogy. I am confident that our faculty are preparing our students to succeed in the dynamic and increasingly complex world they will enter upon graduation.

Over the summer of 2021, the Board of Directors of the IDC Foundation awarded The Cooper Union a three-year grant totaling $471,000 in support of the proposed IDC Innovation Initiative: Innovation at the Intersection of Architecture and Engineering. This grant will support (1) IDC Foundation Innovation Fund for the Deans of Engineering and Architecture to launch new interdisciplinary and cutting-edge enterprises and (2) IDC Foundation Art, Architecture, Construction and Engineering (AACE) Lab Advancement Fund from which faculty and students can propose and implement their own burgeoning innovative ideas and galvanize activity in the new AACE Lab. The first year of this effort has already seen progress. In Civil Engineering, one of our capstone project teams selected as their project to design a new student center for the Cooper Union in a currently empty lot next to our existing residence hall at St. Marks and 3rd Avenue. For the first time, the civil engineering capstone team has integrated students from the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Additionally, Professor Cosmas Tzavelis from Civil Engineering is collaborating with Professor Julian Palacio from Architecture to design a new interdisciplinary course that will use the AACE Lab to explore transformative ideas about the relationship between structure, form, materials and new technologies for design and fabrication. It’s exciting to see activities at the intersection of civil engineering and architecture!

In early November, our chemical engineers took the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in Boston, MA by storm! We had four tenured and tenure-track faculty and 12 students and alumni present results of research conducted at Cooper. In addition, several of our students received awards in the Undergraduate Research Poster Competition. You can find details of this in an article in this issue of the newsletter.

Also in November, we had the distinct pleasure of hosting Dean Kamen for a conversation with our engineering students. Dean Kamen is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and the iBOT all-terrain electric wheelchair, as well as founding FIRST Robotics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the Hoover Medal, and the Lemelson-MIT Prize for inventors, among many, many others. He is the founder and CEO of DEKA Research and Development in New Hampshire. He was at Cooper looking for exceptional engineering talent. It was a great opportunity for our students to engage with someone of his talent, experience, and vision!

I encourage you to take time to read all the articles in this newsletter. They include student activities and successes, faculty contributions and accomplishments, curricular initiatives, and alumni activities.

Thank you again for sharing your valuable time with me on Shoop’s Stoop! It continues to be an exciting time to be part of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. I look forward to sharing additional updates in future editions.

Barry L. Shoop, Ph.D., P.E.  |  Dean of Engineering  |  Albert Nerken School of Engineering