May 2010

May 2010

Top of the News

  • On Thursday, April 22, President of the United States Barack Obama delivered an address on economic reform at The Cooper Union's Great Hall. He was introduced by Cooper Union President George Campbell.
  • The Cooper Union was recognized by Communication Arts magazine in their 2009 Design Awards, for their new logo and visual identity. The new logo was designed by alumnus Stephen Doyle (A'76) and Doyle Partners.
  • Parents & Colleges has selected The Cooper Union as one of their Best Colleges for 2010 in the category of Top 10 Financial Aid Providers.
  • On April 16, Dinner Co-chairs Anne Dudek Ronan (CE'83/MCE'84) and Gregory Ronan (ME'81/MME'82) and more than 240 alumni, faculty, students and friends of The Cooper Union attended the annual Founder's Day Dinner Dance at The Roosevelt Hotel to honor alumni achievements, celebrate the founding of The Cooper Union and the 219th birthday of Peter Cooper, and recognize the 25th reunion of the Class of 1985. Prominent alumni among the disciplines were honored that evening. Arnie Arlow (A’54) presented the Augustus Saint Gaudens Award in Art to Steve Brodner (A'76). The John Hejduk Award in architecture was presented by Jake Alspector (AR'72) to Laurie Hawkinson (AR'83). The Gano Dunn Award in engineering was presented by Scott Lyne (ChE’92/MChE’95) to Dr. Naomi Harley (SCE’59). Alumni Association President MaryAnn Nichols (A’68) honored Charles Cassella (EE'68) with the Alumnus of the Year award and Dean of Engineering Eleanor Baum with the special award of Honorary Alumnus of the Year.
  • A selection of recent media coverage of The Cooper Union is available as a PDF here.

Congratulations

  • Lothar Osterburg (Art fac.), Cameron Martin (Art fac.) and David Storey (Outreach instructor) have been awarded 2010 Guggenheim Fellowships.
  • Lothar Osterburg (Adjunct Professor) has received the Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award is given each year to honor exceptional accomplishment and to encourage creative work.
  • Chrystina Montuori Sorrentino (MChE'10) of New York, NY has been selected to participate in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX), a year-long, federally-funded fellowship for study and work in Germany. While in Germany on CBYX, Ms. Montuori Sorrentino will attend a two-month intensive German language course, study at a German university or professional school for four months, and complete a five-month internship with a German company in her career field (chemical engineering).
  • Architect Andrew Skurman (AR'76) has been named to the Council of Advisors for the internationally renowned Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, based in New York. Skurman, who is an expert in French architecture of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, heads Andrew Skurman Architects, one of the most prominent firms in Northern California specializing in classical residential architecture.
  • Ross McLaren (Art fac) was selected for the Canadian Artist Spotlight at the 23rd Annual Image Festival (April 1-10) where his work was honored during a week of screenings and discussions.
  • Cooper Union's ChemECar qualified for the National ChemECar competition in Salt Lake City, Utah next fall.  Students involved in the project are Lindsay Volk (ChE'10), Caytlin Kowalski (ChE'11), Lisa Liu (ChE'13), Anthony Tantuccio (ChE'10), Alvin Zhang (ME'13), Andrew Crudge (ME'13), Michael Palafox (BSE'13), Michael Grossman (ChE'11), Sampson Lau (ChE'11), Oluwatosin "Tosin" Jalaosa (ChE'11), Michael Guiterrez (consultant) and Chrystina Montouri-Sorrentino (MChE'10, Grad advisor).  The team also won the most original ChemECar award at John Hopkins University in April at the Mid-Atlantic regional competition. Professor Charles Okorafor (Eng fac) helped oversee the team's work.
  • Civil engineering Professor and Chairman Jameel Ahmad was awarded US Patent # 7,677,161, Protective Structure and Protective System, on March 16, 2010. He received US Patent # 7,562,613 on July 21, 2009 and US patent # 6,973,864 on December 13, 2005 for earlier versions of the invention. He also holds a Canadian Patent for the same invention. The Cooper Union shares ownership of these patents with Professor Ahmad.
  • Profs. David Wootton (Eng fac) and George Delagrammatikas (Eng fac) have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant of $152,827 to purchase an Endoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system and multiprocessor computer for mechanical and biomedical engineering fluid mechanics research and projects.  This grant is part of a special competition the NSF conducted with funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
  • Xi Chen (EE'10) and Hassan Edrees (EE'10) won first prize at the IEEE Region 1 & 2 Paper Contest with a project entitled Low Cost Fluid Dielectric Spectroscopy System. The project was jointly supervised by EE Prof. Toby Cumberbatch, and Dr. Nadia Pervez (EE'98) and Prof. Ioannis Kymissis from Columbia University.
  • The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation has awarded EE Prof. Toby Cumberbatch $5000 for a project entitled Low Energy Mass Housing for the Urban Environment.
  • CE juniors Madeline Foster and Jessica Friscia along with Prof. Toby Cumberbatch presented a series of lectures on sustainable engineering for the forthcoming Engineers as Teachers program at The Young Women's Leadership School in Harlem.
  • Helen Minsky (ME'11) has won the Tyler Hicks Award which is presented to an outstanding student in their third year of mechanical engineering.

Publications, Presentations and Major Exhibitions

Giving to Cooper Union

  • Leonard and Bernice Shapiro (AR'52) are the newest members of The Society of 1859 as a result of the charitable gift annuity they have established with The Cooper Union.
  • Jeanette Brooks has made a generous gift, given in memory of Louis Brooks (ME '41), which enables The Cooper Union to acquire vital equipment that will greatly strengthen the department of Mechanical Engineering.  The Brooks are among generous benefactors to the college and members of The Peter Cooper Heritage Society.
  • The Teaching Technology Initiative was launched by Chief Technology Officer Professor Robert P. Hopkins in December 2009 to support the ongoing upgrading of the audiovisual technology in the 12 interdisciplinary classrooms of 41 Cooper Square. The program continues to find very generous new donors, who will be acknowledged with plaques in these classrooms. To date, the technology in seven classrooms is already underwritten. The most recent donors are Richard F. Andrews (EE'79), Samuel M. Dower (ChE'77) and Marie L. Wieck (BSE'82). Many thanks to all!

Don't Miss

Alumni Events

  • The Golden Legion Celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Class of 1960 will be held Friday, May 7, 2010. The opening ceremony will take place in The Great Hall at 10:30 a.m. where the class of 1960 will be inducted into the Golden Legion by President George Campbell Jr. A luncheon in Peter Cooper Suite from 12:00 to 2:30 p.m. follows.  Guided tours of the schools and 41 Cooper Square, take place during the afternoon. The day’s events will culminate with a visit to the Wesselmann Studios from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. to view a collection of the works of Tom Wesselmann (A'59).
  • The annual On the Rooftop event will be held in the Alumni Roof Terrace on Thursday, May 20, 2010 from 7 to 9 pm. Event Chairs Sam Vernon (A’09), Jacob Mautner (AR’09, Keyleigh Kern AR’09 and Kemi Adeyeba ChE’09 and  the Classes of 1994-2009 welcome our newest alumni, the Class of 2010, into The Cooper Union Alumni Association.
  • The annual Commencement Lunch for the Class of 2010 will be held on Monday, May 24, 2010 in Peter Cooper Suite at 1:00 p.m. following the Commencement rehearsal.
  • The Alumni on Wall Street group held a panel discussion and networking event the evening of March 25 entitled "What It Takes to Work in Financial Services Today." More than 50 Cooper Union alumni and juniors, seniors and graduate students attended the event. Moderators of the affinity group, Raymond G. Falci (ME'86), Managing Director, Cain Brothers and Company, LLC, and Lawrence Ng (EE'78), Managing Director, Wall Street Systems, Inc., led a panel of four senior Wall Street professionals consisting of Arthur Caramichael (CE'89, MCE'90), Managing Director, Standard & Poor's Risk Solutions; Helen Chien (EE'92), Senior Quant Developer, WorldQuant, LLC; Sanjeev Handa (CE'84), Managing Director, TIAA-CREF; and Jeffrey S. Hersch (EE'87), Managing Director, UBS Securities. They all spoke enthusiastically and encouragingly about the prospects of working on Wall Street, and they stayed to speak with the guests.

    Following the event, Eric Hirschhorn (ME'89), Managing Director, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., took over from Larry Ng the co-chairmanship of the Alumni of Wall Street group. Under Hirschhorn and Falci's leadership—and with the assistance of one of The Cooper Union's newest alumni, Rohan Chauhan (IE'09, MCE'10), who is starting in the equity trading division of Credit Suisse Group AG in July—we have launched the "Cooper Union Alumni on Wall Street" LinkedIn group for students and alumni interested in pursuing or advancing in financial services industry careers.
  • CU @ Lunch with Cooper Union Alumni featured André Soluri (AR'98) on March 2. Mr. Soluri's  presentation focused on a design methodology that involves analysis in the form of hand-drawn diagrams that outline dynamic, performative relationships within a program. On March 9, Ruth Oppenheim (A'08) discussed her experience at a current student in the MFA program at Cornell University. She also showed work that was inspired by what she described as her "recent state of hibernation." On April 27, Erica Wessmann (A'07) presented her recent work "Changing Title," which questions the traditional definition of a wall by creating a form that is articulated as an undulating structure in flux. CU @ Lunch with Alumni is sponsored by the Center for Career Development and the Office of Alumni Relations.

Did You Know?

  • The Cooper Union participated as a partner school via the Center for Career Development in Columbia University's Not-For-Profit & Public Service Consortium Career Fair on March 5, enlarging employment and internship opportunities for Cooper students.
  • On March 30, the Center for Career Development's Special Topics series focused on how to access funding and other resources for creative projects through fiscal sponsorship. Phillip Stearns AKA Pixel Form presented his fiscally sponsored projects and Juliana Steele, a representative of Fractured Atlas, fielded questions about fiscal sponsorship and contextualized it in relationship to other kinds of funding mechanism and resources.
  • On April 6, Sharon De La Cruz (A'08) talked to students about her experience as a Fulbright Fellow in Lima, Peru. Ms. De La Cruz collaborated in experimental video making with high school seniors. She discussed her research, travels, and experiences as an American entering into the world of Peruvian media and public art. In addition, she showed pictures of murals that she undertook while searching for the perfect way to reach a large, diverse audience. The event was organized by the Center for Writing & Language Arts and the Center for Career Development.
  • On April 20, Constantin Boym presented projects that intentionally blur the boundaries between image-making and product design in UNDISCIPLINED, a series of presentations and discussions on topics and practices that transcend conventional disciplines. Together with Laurene Leon Boym, he leads Boym Partners Inc in New York City, a multidisciplinary design studio that won the National Design Award in 2009. Boym Partners Inc is well-known for its Buildings of Disaster souvenir collection. The program was organized by the Center for Career Development.
  • James Abbott's (Eng fac) Musical Instrument Design class and the Korean Student Association hosted a special lecture and concert with Korean musical instruments on April 14 in the Rose Auditorium.  The lecture, given by ethnomusicologist and composer Dr. Ju-Yong Ha, was followed by several performances of Kayagum, Geomungo, Korean Flutes, and Pansori by a troupe of South Korean musicians.
  • Adj. Prof. Robert Dell is a Member of the 2010 Technical Review Panel for The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation in Anoka, Minnesota, a non-profit organization that offers grants for research projects that promote a balance between the advance of technology and the preservation of the natural/human environment. Approximately ten grants are awarded each year from about 200 applications worldwide. Prof. Dell was a grant recipient in 2006 for his heated green roof project that has since continued with the support of Consolidated Edison and the University of Iceland. For more information please visit www.lindberghfoundation.org