Apply to the School of Engineering

Professional Development Group

The Professional Development Group (PDG) oversees and collaborates on a wide range of co-curricular programs and activities designed to enhance the engineering education of Cooper Union undergraduates through the development of communication, interpersonal, leadership, business, and professional skills.

The Center collaborates closely with the engineering school's communication initiative CONNECT.

CONNECT: Cooper's Own No Nonsense Engineering Communication Training

The need for skilled communicators increases daily as technologies become "smarter" and more user-friendly, disappearing under the surface of everyday office environments. The ability to conduct convincing face-to-face presentations and virtual long-distance video-conferences, as well as to communicate successfully over the telephone or Web, is necessary for success in the global economy. It is important to not only be a technically competent engineer, but also able to communicate that technology to a wider audience.

  • 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.