Welcome back to the East Village, 41 Cooper Square, and Shoop’s Stoop! We made it! We successfully completed another academic year. It’s time for me to share just a few of the exciting things that happened in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering since my last update.

The Cooper Union’s 165th Commencement on May 29, 2025, was a wonderful celebration of our amazing graduates. This year, we had a total of 115 undergraduate students and 30 graduate students graduate from the School of Engineering. Among our undergraduates, this included 24 chemical engineers, 26 civil engineers, 33 electrical engineers, 26 mechanical engineers, and 6 general engineers. In addition to the undergraduate degrees, members of this graduating class were awarded a total of 43 minors: 2 in mathematics, 19 in computer science, 18 in bioengineering, 6 in chemistry, and 7 HSS minors. I might also note that six of our students completed the Dual Degree Master’s Program, where the bachelor’s and master’s degree are awarded simultaneously after four years of study!

Our students continue to hit it out of the park at external competitions. Our Steel Bridge Team emerged above 15 other schools participating in the 2025 ASCE Student Symposium which was held at NJIT. Specific placement included:

AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition:

• Overall: Third Place
• Lightness: First Place
• Stiffness: First Place
• Structural Efficiency: First Place

ASCE 3D Printing: Bridging the Future Competition:

• Overall: Second Place
• Best Structural Efficiency Prediction
• Best Design
• Fastest Team Construction Time

The Daniel W. MEAD Student Paper first place award went to Sinclair Kennedy-Nolle CE’26.

On April 26, the Cooper Union “Solar Decathlon” team presented at the U.S. Department of Energy Buildings NEXT Team Showcase held at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. At the recognition ceremony, our team took the highest prize this year, an Honorable Mention for “Integrated Design.”

Our Fall 2025 incoming first-year class is again very strong. We admitted 134 students to the Class of 2029. There will be 25 students majoring in chemical engineering, 27 in civil engineering, 21 in computer science, 29 in electrical engineering, and 32 in mechanical engineering. Women comprise 36% of this incoming class. Additionally, 23% self-identified as the first in their family to attend college, and 11% of the class is international. Of these undergraduates, 88% submitted standardized test scores with an average SAT score of 1489 and an average Math SAT score of 767. By all measures, this is yet another very strong entering class! In addition, we have 36 entering Master of Engineering students this year.

This past year has been a particularly busy year for full-time faculty hiring. In Fall 2025, we will add five new tenure-track faculty members:

• In Physics, we will add Dr. Emily Palmer who received the Ph.D. from Caltech, the B.S. from Johns Hopkins University, and she served as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. Her research areas include insect flight, fluid dynamics governing wind and ocean energy, the biomechanics underlying human walking, and the electrochemistry of neuronal communication.
• In Civil Engineering, we will welcome Dr. David Kim who received the Ph.D. from Yale University, the B.S. from Columbia University, and was most recently a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. His research areas are in electrochemical methods for water and wastewater treatment.
• In Electrical Engineering, we will add Dr. Stella Banou who received the Ph.D. from Northeastern University, the B.S. from WPI, and was most recently a postdoctoral fellow at NYU. Her research areas include novel wireless communications for remote health monitoring and diagnosis.
• In Mechanical Engineering, we will welcome Dr. Martin Lawless who received the Ph.D. from Penn State University, the B.E. from Cooper Union, and was most recently an Assistant Professor at SUNY Maritime. His research areas are in acoustics, psychoacoustics, architectural acoustics.
• In Chemistry, we will welcome Dr. Tommy George who most recently completed the Ph.D. from Harvard University and whose research areas include electrochemistry, electroanalytical experimental methods, decarbonization toward climate sustainability. 

If anyone is keeping track, since arriving at Cooper, I have hired 16 new tenure-track faculty in the School of Engineering. With the new Computer Science Program, this number is quickly approaching 50% of the tenured and tenure-track faculty. In 2013, the composition of the tenured and tenure-track faculty in the School of Engineering was 6.3% women and in Fall 2025 it will remain 42% women!

Thank you again for sharing your valuable time with me on Shoop’s Stoop! I look forward to sharing additional updates in future editions of Shoop’s Stoop! From all of us at Cooper, enjoy your summer!

Barry L. Shoop, Ph.D., P.E. |  Dean of Engineering  |  Albert Nerken School of Engineering