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 in March.

This year we had a total of 87 undergraduate and 37 graduate students graduate from the School of Engineering. For our undergraduates this included 19 Chemical Engineers, 14 Civil Engineers, 28 Electrical Engineers, 23 Mechanical Engineers and 3 General Engineers. On Wednesday, May 26, we conducted an in-person Commencement in The Great Hall that included 60 members of the Class of 2020 and 78 members of the Class of 2021. 

This summer several of our students were able to take advantage of our expanded summer study abroad program. Our summer study abroad program is an opportunity for students to conduct research in a university lab or work on engineering-focused humanitarian projects at one of our international partner institutions while experiencing a cultural immersion. This year Daniel Tsarev, an electrical engineer, will travel to the University of Burgos in Spain and will focus on creating a digital twin of a current flow battery and exploring methods for creating digital twins for flow batteries. Eddie Zlotskiy, a civil engineer, will conduct research with faculty at the Reykjavik University in Iceland. His research will focus on determining how the physical characteristics of microplastics affect atmospheric transport through emissions, air and the water cycle. Finally, Joya Debi, electrical engineer, Seena Seon, chemical engineer, and Brandon Bunt, general engineer, will accompany Associate Dean Lisa Shay on a humanitarian effort in Guatemala in partnership with the Barbara Ford Peace Building Center. This team will research and recommend options for disposing of the organic waste produced at the Barbara Ford Center and explore the feasibility of making a solar-powered drip irrigation system that could be used in off-grid locations. The summer study abroad program is supported by the Victor and Eleanor DiFranco Endowed Fund and the E. Durbin and J. Morris Innovation Fund.

As I shared in the March newsletter, the composition of the engineering faculty continues to change as we hired one additional new full-time, tenure-track faculty member who will join us in the fall semester of 2021. Alice Pisani will join the Department of Physics coming to us with an undergraduate degree from the University “Sapienza” in Rome, Italy, and Ph.D. from the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP) and Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France. Most recently she was at Princeton University where she was an Associate Research Scholar and Cotsen Fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows. Alice will be the first Cooper faculty member to hold a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Cooper Union and as an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Computational Astrophysics of the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute.

I am pleased to announce the appointments of two of our faculty members as distinguished professors. Eric Lima, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was appointed as the inaugural Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering and Mili Shah, Associate Professor of Mathematics, was appointed the C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Engineering. The Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering will teach classes, conduct leading-edge research involving undergraduate and graduate students, and coordinate and synchronize the various bioengineering efforts across the School of Engineering. The Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering is a three-year appointment supported by the new $1.6M bioengineering foundation grant. The individual selected as the C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Engineering will lead research activities and forge connections to high-technology businesses with needs in engineering research services. The C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Engineering is a two-year appointment supported by The Starr Foundation. Please read the spotlight articles in this newsletter about both amazing faculty members.

In addition to accomplishing our teaching mission, faculty in the School of Engineering continued to innovate and evolve our curriculum and student offerings. Computer Science (CS) has been a topic of interest and discussion since before my arrival in January 2019. During the summer of 2020, a CS Implementation Planning Committee that included Professors Fred Fontaine, Sam Keene, Carl Sable, Mili Shah and myself began a detailed planning phase for a new CS Program for Cooper Union. Topics of investigation included the organizational structure, degree type, whether to seek ABET accreditation, preliminary thinking about the curriculum and course offerings, what is uniquely Cooper about the new major, delivery modality, the possibility of faculty joint appointments and a faculty capacity analysis. This semester a complete computer science curriculum was developed and presented to the Curriculum Committee and approved at the March 25 meeting. The CS Program was then presented and approved by the full faculty at the April 13 meeting. The CS Program will be vibrant, strong, and uniquely Cooper. It will be closely aligned with the mission and reputation of the school and will interface closely with the other programs at The Cooper Union and provide benefit to the institution, as a whole. The CS Program will include a Bachelor of Science (BS) CS degree program and a Master of Science (MS) CS degree program. While the organizational structure and curriculum for this CS Program have been developed and approve by the faculty, we will pursue actual implementation only after we secure external funding that will sustain this new program. We are now in the process of pursuing funding opportunities to bring this exciting CS Program to Cooper Union.

Similarly, in the area of curriculum innovation, bioengineering continues to be a disciplinary area of interest for both faculty and students. You will recall that in the January newsletter I reported that the Albert Nerken School of Engineering received a three-year, nearly $1.6M grant to unify and raise awareness of bioengineering and biomedical education, research, and project activities at Cooper Union. I am pleased to report that this semester, faculty completed the development of a new Bioengineering Minor which was approved by the Curriculum Committee at the March 25 meeting and by the full faculty at the April 13 meeting. In addition to their majors, students now have the opportunity to pursue academic excellence through three minors within the School of Engineering including a Mathematics Minor, a Computer Science Minor and now the new Bioengineering Minor. 

In 2020, the Albert Nerken School of Engineering assembled an Engineering Advisory Council (EAC) comprised of experts from industry, academia, and government for the School of Engineering as a whole and the four ABET accredited engineering majors: Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. A listing of our EAC members can be found on our website, at /engineering/about/engineering-advisory-council. The purpose of the EAC is to provide direct input to the School of Engineering and individual departments regarding current and future needs for our graduates. The EAC met virtually as a whole for the first time on April 20, 2021. Smaller breakout sessions were held by each of the four ABET-accredited majors with members with relevant disciplinary expertise. The EAC provided input and insights to assist the School of Engineering, broadly, including emerging technology areas, modern professional skills, the skills, knowledge, and experience desired by industry, and best practices in engineering education. Additionally, the EAC provided separate input and feedback to the four ABET-accredited majors including curriculum feedback and support to ABET accreditation by reviewing the Student Outcomes and Program Educational Objectives. As the School of Engineering embarked on a comprehensive curriculum review this year, the EAC also provided input to assist with ensuring the Cooper Union engineering curriculum is producing graduates that can succeed in a dynamic and increasingly complex world. 

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

Thank You to Our Donors!

As we conclude this Academic Year, I want to take this opportunity to recognize and personally thank our donors who make possible many of the exciting initiatives in the School of Engineering. Our donor contributions support activities like curriculum innovation, student travel to competitions and conferences, project opportunities, workshops, student mentors, student awards and many others. This year, those institutional and individual donors who have contributed $10,000 or more to the Albert Nerken School of Engineering are identified here.