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Departments
Many departments at the Albert Nerken School of Engineering maintain their own Web sites. You can access these sites via the hyperlinks embedded in the brief descriptions below.
Chemical Engineering | Civil Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Chemistry | Mathematics | Physics | Engineering (Interdisciplinary)
Chemical engineering graduates find employment in a wide variety of areas. In addition to the chemical and petroleum industries, chemical engineers are involved quite heavily in the biomedical, materials and environmental fields. Because of their highly mathematical and analytical training, chemical engineers are also finding employment in nonindustrial situations such as governmental agencies, research think tanks, policy study groups and consulting firms.
Undergraduate program The education of a chemical engineer involves a strong foundation in chemistry, physics and mathematics. In addition, knowledge of energy changes and reaction rates involved in chemical reactions is developed. Physical changes of substances undergoing various processes are also emphasized. The chemical engineer deals with the application of the fundamentals to processes carried out on an industrial scale in which matter undergoes changes in chemical composition or physical state. Emphasis is placed on developing creative as well as analytical ability. Facts and theories are presented primarily to stimulate further thought and study in all fields of chemical engineering.
Formal instruction is supplemented by at least two annual visits to plants where typical operations of the chemical industry can be observed and analyzed with respect to equipment, utilities, labor and supervision. The student acquires firsthand experience in the chemical engineering laboratory in applying engineering analysis to equipment performance and in discovering the limitations of theoretical concepts. In addition to the usual unit operations experiments such as those in distillation, heat transfer and fluid dynamics, experiments in membrane separation and process control have recently been added. During the senior year, the student learns how to design chemical plants from fundamental data on new processes and to recognize limitations of the design.
Graduate Program In addition to advanced courses in chemical engineering and other areas, the student must complete a thesis for the M.E. degree. The M.E. candidate must choose a full-time Cooper Union faculty member from either the chemistry or the chemical engineering department as one of his/her thesis advisors. Before choosing a thesis topic, however, the student should explore various professors' research interests before choosing a topic. Research interests of chemical engineering faculty members include non-Newtonian flow, crystal growth from high-temperature melts, polymer extrusion, heat and mass transfer with change of phase, drag coefficients in dense-phase transport, construction of a database of engineering materials, mathematical modeling of bioheat transfer in the microcirculation, mathematical modeling of whole-body heat transfer, analysis of oxygen transport in the cardiovascular system and an integrated gasification process for the simultaneous disposal of sludge and garbage with concomitant production of steam and electricity; biochemical separation, protein-purification, environmental engineering and mathematical modeling.
The Department of Chemical Engineering maintains a Web site.
Civil engineering, earliest of the engineering professions, has evolved into a broad spectrum of specialties: structural, geotechnical, hydraulic, environmental, transportation, urban planning, construction, irrigation and drainage, waterways and harbors and infrastructure rehabilitation.
Depending upon personal interests and abilities, the modern civil engineer also may become involved in research, design and development related to projects concerned with hazardous waste management, alternative disposal strategies for municipal and solid waste and biomedical engineering applications. The civil engineer also studies and develops new materials, new structural systems and new systems procedures for optimizing design. Basic research, especially in the areas of applied and experimental mechanics, often arises either as a preliminary or adjunct requisite to these studies.
The civil engineer who wishes to practice creatively in any of these fields must be thoroughly grounded in the basic sciences, mathematics, applied mechanics, structures and structural mechanics, engineering sciences and computer applications.
The members of the civil engineering faculty are actively engaged in research in their specialties, which include modern advances in structural engineering and materials, geotechnical engineering, water pollution control technologies and water resources engineering.
Undergraduate Program Opportunity is available to graduates for careers in civil engineering design as related to structures, geotechnical applications, construction management, environmental engineering and water resources engineering. Accordingly, the curriculum places strong emphasis on laboratory experience acquired through innovative experimental projects that are conceived and conducted by the students under close faculty supervision. To meet this need, the department maintains a separate laboratory in each of four major civil engineering specialties: materials and structures, water resources, environmental and geotechnical.
Graduate Program Completion of the Master of Engineering degree program in civil engineering is important for entry into the profession in any one of the specialized fields cited above. The civil engineering department offers some two dozen graduate-level courses in the cited areas. Major areas of concentration are structural engineering and environmental engineering. Graduate minors may include computer engineering, civil engineering management or other interdisciplinary areas of engineering.
The Department of Civil Engineering maintains its own Web site.
Electrical engineering offers great diversity and an exciting career. It is by nature ever changing and ever challenging. The Department has a number of established laboratories, including Digital Communications, Multimedia, Parallel Processing, Image & Video Processing, Networks, VLSI, Embedded Computing and Optics & Microwave Laboratories. Many students go on to graduate studies in electrical or computer engineering, and a significant number pursue careers in medicine, law, management or applied science.
Undergraduate Program Basic electrical and computer engineering courses along with core science and humanities courses are taken in the freshman and sophomore years. In the junior year, students take specialized courses in different areas of electrical and computer engineering. They plan their electives, with the assistance of a faculty advisor, to specialize in areas of interest and obtain a well-rounded and diverse educational experience. By the senior year, strong students are encouraged to take graduate-level electives beyond the requirements of the bachelor's degree as part of an integrated five-year master's program. The curriculum interweaves strong theory grounded in mathematics and science with extensive use of CAD tools and practical projects, starting with EE 150 Digital Logic Design in the freshman year and culminating with yearlong senior projects. By the time students commence their senior projects, they not only perform open-ended system design, implementation and testing and prepare written and oral presentations, but also act as project managers under the guidance of a faculty advisor. There are numerous research and independent study opportunities for undergraduate students, involving close work with faculty on cutting-edge problems. Historically, many projects have been performed in conjunction with other departments within The Cooper Union or with local companies, hospitals and research and development centers.
Graduate Program All graduate students are required to complete EE 402 Probability and Stochastic Processes as part of the major described earlier in the catalog. Possible areas of concentration or thesis topics include digital signal processing, computer engineering, telecommunications and networking, and biomedical engineering.
The Department of Electrical Engineering maintains its own Web site.
Mechanical engineers are concerned with the devices and phenomena related to the generation, transmission, application and control of power. Mechanical engineering grew up with the industrial revolution and is today the broadest of the engineering disciplines, encompassing many diverse activities and fields of interest. Mechanical engineers may be involved with research and development, design, manufacturing, sales, application and service or administration and management as well as teaching and consulting. Their fields of interest include solid mechanics, materials, fluid mechanics, acoustics, heat transfer and thermodynamics, combustion, control systems, manufacturing, CAD/CAM and robotics or combinations of these as is often the case in the design and development work of complex projects. (Examples: the space shuttle, the investigation of alternate energy from renewable resources and the development of completely automated factories through robotics.) At the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, the mechanical engineering faculty and the students have been and continue to be involved in these and other exciting new developments through their project work, research or consulting.
Mechanical engineering is an ideal foundation for careers in the aerospace industry, ocean engineering, marine engineering, biomedical engineering, the automobile industry, the power and utilities industries and virtually any area of activity that requires analytic abilities combined with a strong background in design practice.
Undergraduate Program The sequence of courses in the undergraduate curriculum emphasizes the fundamental engineering sciences in a computer environment and professional design practice. By the selection of electives and of their design and research projects, students have a large degree of flexibility in exploring their own interests.
Graduate Program Major areas of concentration are in Computer-Aided Engineering and Design, Robotics, Combustion, Aerodynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Systems and other interdisciplinary areas of engineering.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering maintains its own Web site.
The Department of Chemistry offers a wide range of courses that are necessary for the understanding of the various engineering disciplines. First-year engineering students enroll in the following courses: General Chemistry (a general quantitative and descriptive overview of chemistry); Physical Principles of Chemistry (a quantitative discussion of chemical thermodynamics, electrochemistry and chemical kinetics); General Chemistry Laboratory (chemical experimentation with emphasis on data recording and report writing).
Sophomore and junior level courses required for chemical engineering majors can also be taken as electives by those wishing to further their knowledge in the environmental, biomedical, instrumental and physical areas. These offerings include: Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis. In addition, elective courses ranging from biochemistry to selected topics in physical chemistry are also offered.
Research at the undergraduate and master's levels can be conducted under the supervision of the chemistry faculty. A list of topics of current interest of the chemistry faculty follows: The mechanisms of organic reactions (with special interest in benzyne reactions and sodium perborate oxidation); environmentally related air and water chemistry and high-temperature pyrolysis reactions. Quantum mechanical computer calculations; development of laboratory experiments and chemical demonstrations; physical chemistry projects. Instrumentation development for environmental chemistry studies; surface techniques, chromatography and serosol analysis. Photoelectrochemical studies of oxide films formed on metals; electrochemical aspects of corrosion studies.
The department operates laboratories in General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis and for research projects. All of these laboratories are serviced by the Chemistry Stockroom. The major instruments in current course and/or research use include a mass spectrograph/gas chromatograph (fully computerized), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (fully computerized), infrared spectrophotometer, ultraviolet/visible spectrophotometer (fully computerized), high-performance liquid chromatograph, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, gas chromatograph, polarograph and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrophotometer.
The primary responsibility of the Department of Mathematics is the maintenance and delivery of the core mathematics curriculum for the School of Engineering. This consists of a sequence of required courses given in the first two years covering calculus, linear algebra, probability, vector calculus and differential equations. In addition to the core courses, there are a variety of elective mathematics courses, some of which are computer related. The mathematics curriculum will more than adequately prepare the student for professional work as well as graduate study in engineering and applied mathematics.
The faculty of the mathematics department strives to develop in the student a firm foundation in, and an appreciation of, the structure and methods of mathematics. Current research interests of the faculty are operator algebras, operations research, analysis, probability, number theory, discrete groups, computer operating systems and programming languages and databases.
The physics program at Cooper Union provides a sequence of introductory courses devised to introduce students in engineering to fundamental physical concepts that underlie all the engineering disciplines. Additionally, the physics department offers elective courses that are crafted to provide an enhanced understanding of specially selected fields of interest in engineering science. The Department of Physics maintains two instructional laboratories: the Laboratory for Mechanics and Thermodynamics and the Laboratory for Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics.
Areas of research of the physics faculty are atomic theory, deterministic chaos and solid-state physics.
Engineering (Interdisciplinary)
The School of Engineering offers a program in General Interdisciplinary Engineering leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.). This program is designed for students whose career plans and interest call for a more flexible and interdisciplinary approach than is possible under the B.E. programs. As such, it is intended for those students who wish a broad yet sound education in engineering enabling them to work in interdisciplinary areas; or who prefer to delay their specialization in a given area of engineering until after graduation; or who desire a strong broad-based engineering background as preparation for further studies in engineering or in such other professions as medicine, law or business administration.
The program is administered by an interdepartmental committee under the chairmanship of Professor Zikri Ahmed. Approximately 10 percent of the engineering undergraduates currently undertake this program.
Curriculum
The student must complete a minimum of 50 credits in engineering, engineering sciences (ESC) and interdisciplinary engineering (EID), in addition to fulfilling all the requirements for the bachelor's degree. The course requirements can be summarized as follows:
| Credits | |
| Core Courses (freshman and sophomore) | 55 |
| Humanities and Social Sciences (over and above the core courses) |
minimum 12 |
| Engineering and Engineering Sciences (over and above the core courses) |
minimum 45 |
| Free Electives | 23 |
| Total credits | 135 |
Each student is assigned to a faculty advisor and, in consultation with the advisor, devises an academic program to suit his or her own needs. Students may choose from all courses available at The Cooper Union and may work in such interdisciplinary areas as environmental and energy resources engineering, systems and computer engineering, bioengineering and ocean and aerospace engineering. Students who are considering applications to other professional schools after completing the engineering degree are advised to take one year of organic chemistry and one year of biology for medicine and dentistry, additional courses in the social sciences for law and one year of economics for business. Such students should consult their faculty advisor in order to design a minor concentration to meet professional goals and degree requirements.