The Cooper Union Research Foundation, established in 1976 as a not-for-profit corporation, sponsors many of the research projects in the School of Engineering. By encouraging and supporting research, the foundation augments the educational opportunities for students, enhances professional development of faculty, promotes multi-disciplinary research and serves the community through its research and development efforts and as a sponsor of public seminars and conferences. Participation in research activities by faculty and students is essential to the vitality of our educational programs. In attempting to meet this objective, CURF plays an important role for faculty and students having research talent who wish to pursue sponsored research individually or in concert with other faculty and students. Projects undertaken by CURF are externally funded. Faculty serve as project directors, assisted by other faculty members, outside consultants and undergraduate and graduate students of The Cooper Union. CURF is poised to support all programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, by providing real-life research projects throughout the curriculum. To this end, four inter-disciplinary research centers are in development: The Maurice Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering, where research has begun in orthopedic bio-mechanics, tissue engineering, rehabilitation, medical imaging, neurology and robotics surgery. This center has established collaborative relationships with several hospitals and medical research institutions in the New York City area. The Center for Urban Systems and Infrastructure has started research int he areas of urban security and protective design, infrastructure rehabilitation, new energy technologies, acoustics and noise abatement and sustainable environment. Industrial partnerships have been formed with various corporations and government agencies. The Cooper Union Institute for Urban Security operates under the auspices of this center. The Center for Materials and Manufacturing will be engaged in research in composite materials, fire-resistant and blast-resistant materials, robotics, mechatronics, nano-technologies and non-biosensors. The center will also be active in innovative product design and automation. The Center for Computer Engineering and Telecommunications is planned to facilitate partnerships and collaborative research in wireless technologies, computer security, communications security and remote bio-sensing. Each of the centers aims to draw upon the varied faculty expertise across The Cooper Union, and uses laboratory resources in the School of Engineering, as well as the resources of the Schoolds of Art and Architecture. Recent research sponsors of CURF include Zimmer, Pfizer, EPRI, Con Edison, the National Security Agency, the City of New York Departments of Transportation, Environmental Protection and Design and Construction, Transpo, Lucent, NYSERDA, the U.S. DOE and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute. CURF has a proprietary interest in several new technologies, all of them patented, and most of them developed at The Cooper Union. Examples include several patents in asphalt technology, a clean-coal burning technology, an innovative hydro-electric generation process, fuel-cell processes, a micro-balance sensor and several patents in telecommunications and environmental measurement devices.