Deans

Headshot

Mersiha Veledar is a practicing architect and an educator. She has lived in New York since she was fourteen years old, where she found refuge through ‘The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’, UNESCO following her survival of war-inflicted injuries from the 1991-1995 genocide in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Graduate of The Cooper Union [B.ARCH ‘03] and Princeton University [M.ARCH II ‘05], Veledar has been teaching and coordinating a range of innovative studios and seminars since 2005 at The Cooper Union, from 1st year ”Archi-Tectonics” studios [coordinator], 3rd year “Building Integrated” studios [coordinator], 4th year “Architecture of the City” urbanism studios, as well as undergraduate and graduate M. Arch II Thesis studios [coordinator], while committed to the practice and construction of architecture.

The genesis of her work and studio pedagogy originate in her ‘Architecture could Heal: Towards a Universal Architecture’ thesis [advised by Lebbeus Woods], where she developed a tectonic framework of experimental universal scale elements [walls, columns, windows, doors and stairs] while testing active programmatic environments as novel architectural standards that are common to all cultures and architectures. Having witnessed the fall of civic institutions and infrastructures through the effects of war and prejudice, she has focused her professional career on an array of public and private programs ranging in scales from schools, museums and residences where she tests the boundaries of transformation and concrete actualization of built form.

In her recent teaching accomplishments, the ‘Animate Archi-Tectonics’ studio Veledar coordinated, received the prestigious ‘2018 Studio Prize’ by ARCHITECT Magazine and was the only first year undergraduate studio to be awarded amongst the six winning anonymous entries in North America [Canada and US]. Juror Eric Owen Moss, FAIA stated “I think the work is beautiful,” who was also impressed with the studio’s unconventional approach to introducing basic architectural concepts. “It does seem to suggest that there is another way to see, study, and speculate form.” Additionally, the thesis project she advised in 2017 received the coveted Royal Institute of British Architects ‘RIBA Silver Medal Award for World’s Best Projects,’ a first for The Cooper Union.

Veledar is currently coordinating a 3rd year building integrated studio titled ‘Housing New York: Integrating ‘Living’ Configurations Towards A Novel Urban Domesticity’ in collaboration with the HelpUSA organization whose humanitarian efforts continue to make a tremendous impact on affordable housing challenges across the US. This project is part of the 2019 NYC School ‘Housing Inter-Consortium’ alongside Dean Nader Tehrani and the co-teaching team where students are learning how to innovate housing to create a greater social good.

Her recent research paper titled 'Healing the City: Elemental Constructions and the Universal Language of Architecture' was accepted for publication by the 2018 New Instrumentalities, ACSA. Additionally, she was invited as a panelist to the 'Open Cities: 2018 ACSA/COAM International Conference’ in Madrid and recently gave a lecture on the effects of “Universal Resiliency and Architecture' with Anne Romme at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Copenhagen in addition to being a panelist on ‘Productive Hybrids, Design III, Urban Housing in San Juan: Symposium at The Cooper Union.

Veledar has developed an extensive range of architecturally experimental and socially conscientious projects in her built work including High School of Art and Design and PS 59 [SCA] in New York; Elizabeth Academic High School in Elizabeth [SCA] in New Jersey and countless residential projects. Veledar has built work both in New York City and overseas.

Veledar's CV is available here.

Barry Shoop

Barry L. Shoop, Ph.D., P.E., is Dean of Engineering at the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Engineering in Manhattan, NY. 

Barry assumed his role at The Cooper Union on January 1, 2019. In this capacity, he leads the largest of The Cooper Union’s schools which is comprised of seven academic departments supporting an average enrollment of roughly 480 undergraduate and another 70 graduate students. Under his leadership, the School of Engineering has flourished. In the last four-years, the school has introduced four new minors including Computer Science, Bioengineering, Chemistry, and Humanities and Social Sciences; introduced a new type of course structure known as Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) that engage students in a project-based experience over multiple semesters to apply disciplinary knowledge and gain important professional skills; hired 10 new tenure-track faculty increasing the number of women tenured and tenure-track faculty from 6.2% in 2013 to 42% in 2023; launched partnerships with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics, Nokia Bell Laboratories, and NEC Laboratories America. Additionally, the School of Engineering has expanded the summer study abroad program to include Singapore, Italy, Bosnia in conjunction with La Trope University in Australia, and Santa Cruz del Quiche in Guatemala.

Prior to his current position, he retired as a Brigadier General after a 39-year career in the U.S. Army, with the last 25 years at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While at West Point, he served in a number of key leadership roles including Director of the Photonics Research Center, Director of the Electrical Engineering Program and his last position was Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Earlier in his career, he was a satellite communication engineer responsible for the design and installation of a high-capacity, global digital communication network, and also the Chief Technology Officer for a US$4.5B organization addressing the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) challenge worldwide.

Dr. Shoop received a B.S. degree from the Pennsylvania State University and Ph.D. from Stanford University, both in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include optical information processing, neural networks, image processing, disruptive innovations and educational pedagogy. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). In addition, he is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Sigma Xi. Dr. Shoop has served on the Board of Directors of OSA, ABET, and IEEE. In 2016, Dr. Shoop served as the IEEE President and CEO. In 2008, OSA recognized him with their Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award and, in 2013, he received both the SPIE Educator Award and the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award. Dr. Shoop holds a patent on photonic analog-to-digital conversion and has authored over 150 archival publications as well as 8 books and book chapters. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
About

Ph.D., Chemistry 2005
Yale University
Research Advisors: Prof. David J. Austin and Prof. Donald M. Crothers
Dissertation: “Synthetic and Biophysical Efforts Toward an Understanding of RNA Structure”

M.S., Chemistry 2000
Yale University

B.E., Chemical Engineering 1998
The Cooper Union
Summa Cum Laude Graduate

Courses

Accordion content.

Publication / Research

Accordion content.

Service

Accordion content.

Portrait

Benjamin Aranda is a teacher, practitioner, and researcher of experimental design and architecture. He was recently named the inaugural IDC Foundation Distinguished Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, in recognition of his commitment to advancing interdisciplinary learning across the schools of Art, Architecture, and Engineering. At Cooper Union, he has taught undergraduate and graduate design studios as well as interdisciplinary seminars.

Since 2018, Benjamin has co-taught Generative Algorithms and Machine Learning for Art and Architecture—nicknamed “GenML”—alongside electrical engineering professor Sam Keene, the John and Mary Manuck Distinguished Professor of Design. The course explores the intersections of computation, creativity, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Benjamin is also a principal at Aranda\Lasch, an architecture and design studio based in New York and Tucson. Their wide-ranging work—from generative software to physical architecture—reflects a critical engagement with making in an age of algorithmic tools, invoking long-standing histories and cultural traditions. Their work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, among others, and has been exhibited internationally across a range of institutions and galleries. Recognition includes the United States Artists Award, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award, the Miller Prize, and support from the Graham Foundation.


 

  • 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.