The STEM Teaching Fellowship is part of The Cooper Union STEM Outreach K-16+ college and career pathway programming. Teaching Fellows are upper-level students or recent graduates with teaching and research experience. Fellows propose a research topic that will be developed into class projects for Summer STEM. Each fellow undergoes a spring bootcamp to prepare them to lead a Summer STEM class, create and test curriculum, and mentor high school students.  

During the three-week Summer STEM class, 9th and 10th grade high school students and undergraduate teaching assistants participate in team research projects using the engineering design process. These classes follow the Engineering Design and Problem Solving first year class or “EID101” model.  

Anastasiya Islamova is a senior studying chemical engineering who is interested in working at the intersection of chemistry, coding, and mechanical engineering. She was a Summer STEM 2023 teaching assistant for the Computer-Aided Drug Design project. Her interest in teaching grew out of her experiences as a gymnastics coach and helping young people grow into confident individuals through the sport. Islamova is the co-founder of a 3D printing company, where she assists customers with designing, testing, and optimizing products for their business needs. Her Summer STEM 2023 class project extends her current research on developing a recycling process for plastic waste generated by 3D printing at The Cooper Union. In her free time, she likes to work on her own 3D printing projects and travel. In addition to engineering techniques, Islamova hopes students in her class learn different ways engineers can combat the climate crisis and “feel hopeful about the future.” 

Siddhartha Pinto is a junior studying chemical engineering with a love for organic chemistry and research that combines chemistry and biology. He is an organic chemistry teaching assistant and tutor and plans to become a bioengineering professor. His independent research at The Cooper Union focuses on protein purification. His Summer STEM 2023 class project was inspired by his concern for the environment and interest in investigating biopolymers as an alternative to plastics. He believes that high school students can contribute to bioengineering advancements and positively impact the environmental movement. When he has free time, Pinto enjoys rock climbing including designing rock wall routes and coaching young climbers. When asked why he is studying engineering, Pinto commented, “When I was in high school, I thought I would study chemistry but then I discovered engineering.  I like the engineering mind-set that at every step you need to test it in the real world and ask yourself ‘does it really work?"