Materials & Fluids Research

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Perpetual earth

NASA Perpetual Ocean

DESIGNING FROM THE BOTTOM UP

Nearly every modern industrial technology increasingly depends on optimizing the materials used to build our chips, batteries, wires,  pharmaceuticals and medical devices, fuels, and alternate energy sources, to name just a few. At the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, faculty are advancing a number of engineering solutions in these areas. Faculty in multiple departments are leading efforts in nanoparticle-based materials and drugs, along with parallel efforts to exploit the electrical and magnetic properties of materials in biomedical devices and therapies. On larger scales, multi-physical approaches are applied to complex materials such as cements, clays, rock, and soils.

GLOBAL IMPACT OF FLUIDS RESEARCH

The behavior of liquids and gases and their interaction with other  
fluids and solids is a multi-disciplinary area of research central to  
much of science and engineering, which impacts nearly every aspect of our lives. Research on fluids is critical in biomedical engineering, medicine, energy, transportation, manufacturing, defense, and security. Cooper faculty, collaborators, and students work on leading-edge projects in several of these technology areas, including flow patterns related to sleep apnea, the interaction of blood flow and therapeutic agents, and the airflow in operating room settings. On larger scales, flow and control of aircraft and drones are modeled while improved designs for autonomous aquatic vehicles are developed, modeled, and tested with the aim of improving their efficiency, monitoring, and data-assimilation capabilities. 

  • 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.