Albert Nerken School of Engineering

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

An Introduction to the School of Engineering

With an average enrollment of about 500 students, Engineering is the largest of Cooper Union's schools. The school maintains small class and laboratory enrollment to provide for personal attention. It offers undergraduate degree programs in civil, che mical, mechanical and electrical and an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) degree program.

Graduates are recruited regularly by companies nationwide. Alumni are found in the top management and research leadership of many American corporations; hold key positions in federal, state and city agencies and distinguish themselves on university f aculties and administrations nationwide. Through their many and varied professional accomplishments, alumni have earned for the school its reputation for excellence.

Degree programs are designed to allow students to enter the profession immediately after graduation or to pursue graduate study. The B.S.E. program offers a less specialized education and provides a superb preparation for postgraduate work in medicin e, law or business. The integrated master's program offers the opportunity to earn both a bachelor's and a master's degree in five years. An extraordinary number of Cooper Union graduates have gone on to earn Ph.D. degrees at the nation's most prestigiou s graduate schools.

Like Cooper Union's other schools, the Albert Nerken School of Engineering is intimately involved with the New York metropolitan area. The school draws on the region's abundant talent and resources, including the outstanding array of engineers and sci entists employed at major corporations, governmental agencies and consulting firms in the New York region. The school also calls on physicians, lawyers and other specialists to give unique insights into contemporary problems and social issues confronting modern engineers.

Students benefit from close contact with faculty and the school's devoted alumni, who delight in sharing their experiences and insights with students and in serving as role models. Many undergraduate students also work on significant research projects with faculty, an unusual feature in most undergraduate programs.

First-year students, regardless of major, take the same core curriculum in the fundamentals of , mathematics, chemistry, physics and computer-aided design, as well as liberal arts courses. The freshman program features a unique design course in which students work in groups toward solving urban problems, such as traffic gridlock and solid waste disposal.

In the second year, students begin their studies. Third- and fourth- year students take part in individual and team design projects in state-of-the-art laboratories. They also take advanced courses in the four major disciplines--civil, chemical, el ectrical and mechanical. All students, undergraduate and graduate, have open access to extensive computer facilities and laboratories.

The School of Engineering offers master's degree programs in each of the traditional disciplines. Interdisciplinary studies are encouraged in a number of areas, such as biomedical, computer, environmental, materials and robotics.

The faculty are committed teachers. Many carry out advanced research for government agencies and industry through the Cooper Union Research Foundation (CURF) . CURF, whose annual budget is more than $1 million, employs undergraduate and graduate stude nts in its wide array of research projects that have been funded by such agencies as NASA, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Consolidated Edison and the federal departments of commerce and energy. This research has led to an altern ative technology to recover energy from sewage sludge; a pollution-control computer model to eliminate odors in urban harbors; a dolphin-shaped robot to inspect the inside of pipelines for structural defects; a computer model to predict the performance of gasification plants that synthesize fuels from coal; a nonsmudging newsprint ink and a better adhering asphalt for road repair.


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