Cooper Union
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The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a privately funded college in Lower Manhattan of New York City. Cooper Union is located in the East Village, around Cooper Square and Astor Place (3rd Avenue & 6th~9th Streets). It is one of the few American institutions of higher learning to offer a full-tuition scholarship to all admitted students. The school offers degree programs in architecture, fine arts, and engineering.
The Cooper Union is one of the most selective colleges in the United States, with an acceptance rate of 10–12%. With nearly 70% of accepted students coming to attend, it is also one of the most desirable schools in the country.
A substantial portion of the annual budget is generated through donations from a highly successful group of alumni in both the public and the private sector. Students in the School of Engineering have become important figures not only in the science and engineering community but as leaders in corporate and government organizations. The art and architecture schools have produced some of the most renowned creative figures in recent times, most notably Herb Lubalin, Eva Hesse, John Hejduk, Chuck Hoberman, Daniel Libeskind and Milton Glaser.
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Founding and early history
The Cooper Union was founded in 1859 by American industrialist Peter Cooper, who was a prolific inventor and a successful entrepreneur. A self-made millionaire, Cooper had not received formal education and he made it his lifelong mission to provide opportunity for the poor by offering "education that was as free as the air we breathe and the water we drink." The Cooper Union began with adult education in night classes on the subjects of applied sciences and architectural drawing, as well as day classes for women on the subjects of photography, telegraphy, typewriting and shorthand. Discrimination as to race, religion, or sex was expressly prohibited.
Early board members included Horace Greeley and William Cullen Bryant.
According to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britanica, in 1907, the principal departments of The Cooper Union consisted of a five-year course in general science (667 students) and in chemistry (154), a three-year course in electricity (114), and a night school of art (1333); a day school of technical science—four years in civil, mechanical or electrical engineering—(237), a woman's art school (282), a school of stenography and typewriting for women (55); a school of telegraphy for women (31); a class in elocution (96); and classes in oratory and debate (146). The highest simultaneous enrollment that year was 2505, and 3000 were on the waiting list.[1]
Important speeches
Image:ForArch-1.jpgOn February 27, 1860, the school's Great Hall became the site of a historic address by a little-known attorney from Illinois, then an undeclared candidate for the Republican Party's Presidential nomination. Abraham Lincoln's dramatic speech opposed Stephen A. Douglas on the question of federal power to regulate and limit the spread of slavery to the federal territories and new States. Widely reported in the press and reprinted throughout the North in pamphlet form, the speech galvanized support for Lincoln and contributed to his gaining the Party's nomination for the Presidency. Coincidentally, Peter Cooper himself ran for President in 1876.
Since then, the Great Hall has served as a platform for many historic addresses by American Presidents Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and most recently, Bill Clinton. Clinton spoke on May 12, 1993 about reducing the federal deficit. To this day, the Great Hall continues to serve as an important metropolitan art space, hosting lectures and performances by key figures such as Steve Reich, Salman Rushdie and Rudolph Giuliani.
Modern changes
The Cooper Union evolved over time into its current form of a college with three schools in architecture, art, and engineering. Regardless of the changes, the tradition of tuition-free education is still thriving. Cooper Union is currently conducting a comprehensive revision to its curricula and has proposed plans to change the usage of its real estate assets, so that it may continue to offer full-tuition scholarships to all accepted students.
The School of Architecture
The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture offers the Bachelor of Architecture degree at the end of a five year course of studies. The unorthodox curriculm, led by the dean John Hejduk (1975-2000), teaches the students to develop their own interests. The faculty has usually included influential practicing architects (Peter D. Eisenman, Diller+Scofidio). Anthony Vidler is the current dean.
The School of Art
The School of Art draws on the creative energy of the East Village to produce some of the most distinguished artists in the world today. It is arguably the most prestigious art school in North America. Admission is largely based on the rigorous and sometimes infamous 'home test'. Students spend most of the time in studio courses equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. Notable figures that are alumni of the Cooper Union School of Art include illustrator/designer Seymour Chwast, designer Milton Glaser, designer Herb Lubalin, artist Eva Hesse, and artist/printmaker Alex Katz.
Curriculum
Unlike most art schools Cooper Union does not require students declare a major. Instead they encourage a generalists approach and curriculum. After their foundation year students are allowed to choose classes from all of the art departments. In effect this means that students can still focus on a discipline but are allowed the freedom to explore alternative interests. This creates a rich cross pollination when you have someone who's focus is graphic design taking a sculpture classs or a painter taking a film class.
The School of Engineering
The Albert Nerken School of Engineering has about 550 students. The school offers ABET accredited Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) programs in Chemical Engineering (ChE), Civil Engineering (CE), Electrical Engineering (EE), and Mechanical Engineering (ME); a Middle States accredited Bachelor of Science (B.S.) program in engineering (BSE); and a Master of Engineering (M.E.) program.
Until the mid- to late 1970's, students could choose to major in physics. Thereafter, this major was eliminated. Until the class of 2006, students choose to major in the one of the four traditional disciplines (ChE, CE, EE, and ME), or customize their education by opting for the BSE degree that has fewer requisite courses and greater opportunity for elective courses.
New curricula take effect beginning with the class of 2007. Under the currently published Course Catalog, students can still choose to pursue the traditional ChE, CE, EE, and ME degree programs, but greater flexibility in course selection is being planned for the four degree programs. In addition, there are proposals to offer students choices of "concentrations" (possibilities include Nanotechnology and Bio-engineering) that will offer groups of courses in more specific fields than the four traditional disciplines. The details of the new curricula are work in progress and therefore subject to change.
The Master of Engineering program offers an opportunity for Cooper Union undergraduate students to obtain a master's degree in one of the four disciplines while conducting research at the school. The requirements for the Master's Degree are a 30-credit course of study including a 12 credit major and a 12 credit minor. At least 6 credits of thesis study are required. Candidates for this degree are also required to conduct an oral defense of their thesis which is organized by the student's department.
Curriculum
Electrical Engineering
The curriculum before the class of 2007 requires 135 credits for graduation and has the following breakdown of credits:
Required courses:
- Math: 20 credits
- Chemistry: 7.5 credits
- Physics: 13.5 credits
- Engineering, Interdisciplinary: 8 credits
- Electrical Engineering: 51.5 credits
- Humanities/Social Sciences: 12 credits
Elective courses:
- Engineering/Science: 10.5 credits
- Humanities/Social Sciences: 12 credits
There is a strong emphasis on basic math and science courses, as well as an emphasis on developing students' expressive skills by the unusually high number of credits required by humanities/social sciences courses.
In the required undergraduate electrical engineering courses, electrical engineering students learn about the fundamental concepts of digital logic, circuit theory, electronics, digital signal processing, computer architecture, control systems, communication theory, electromagnetics, integrated circuits, and electromechanical energy conversion. Juniors are guided through a series of lab experiments and assigned projects. Seniors propose their own projects and many of them participate in inter-collegial contests.
In the new tentative curriculum proposed for the class of 2007 and beyond, three tracks of specialization are offered: Computer Engineering, Signal Processing & Communications, and Electronic Systems & Materials Engineering. The tracks offer different selections of advanced courses for specialization, while sharing the same "foundation courses".
Mechanical Engineering
Like the other named majors, the curriculum of the Mechanical Engineering Department requires 135 credits for graduation. The current Department Chair, Professor Chih-Shing (Stan) Wei, has overseen a sizeable expansion in the past two years, which has included the hiring of two new professors. The tenure-track (non-adjunct) roster of the "MechE" department now includes the following:
- Chih-Shing (Stan) Wei, Professor
- George Sidebotham, Professor
- Perry Grossman, Professor
- George Delagrammatikas, Assistant Professor
- Yong Gan, Assistant Professor
- Melissa Micou, Assistant Professor
There are several important adjunct faculty serving the Mechanical Engineering Department, including Professor James Abbott, Director of the Acoustic Laboratory, and Professor Robert Dell, the Engineering School's Artist-in-Residence.
Recent curriculum changes include the addition of several upper-level electives covering topics such as Advanced Engine Concepts, Heat Exchanger Dynamics, Micro-Elecro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), Autonomous Mobile Robots, and others. This has coincided with a reinforcement of the traditional curriculum, especially areas such as thermodynamics and instrumentation labs. Other sections of traditional curriculum include control systems, mechanics (beams, etc.), materials science, and a few other areas. Mechanical Engineering is often viewed as being the most versatile and broad of the Engineering majors; graduates go on to almost every possible engineering field. It is also a large crossover point for design and art graduates.
Other
Curriculum development was supported by a planning grant from the National Science Foundation and directed by Dean Simon Ben-Avi. The new multi-disciplinary B.E. degree has a freshman and sophomore class already. (2004-2005). First graduation is expected in 2007.
Facilities
Electrical Engineering
- S*PROCOM² (Signal PROcessing, COMmunications and COMputer Engineering Research Center)
- Micro EE Lab (μLab): equipment for Computer Architecture, such as programmers for microcontrollers and programmable logic devices
- Integrated Circuit Engineering Lab (ICE Lab): workstations and software (HSPICE, Cadence, Verilog, ADS) for designing integrated circuits and microwave circuits
- Junior EE Lab: equipment and workbenches with oscilloscopes, multimeters, power sources, etc.
- Senior EE Lab: workbenches with uncertain collections of equipment used by the senior projects that are in progress
- Multimedia and Microprocessor Lab
- Wireless Communications Lab
- Imaging Systems Lab
- Electronic Materials Lab
Mechanical Engineering
- The Forrest Wade Rapid Prototyping Laboratory: includes large CAD/CAM setup, fused deposition modeling (FDM) rapid prototyper, 3-D digitizing equipment
- Special Materials Lab: materials testing equipment, i.e. Rockwell and Sharpy hardness testers, tensile and compression testing equipment, equipment for making carbon composite materials
- Acoustics Laboratory (featuring the only anechoic chamber in NYC)
- Combustion Laboratory (current research includes testing of flammability of operating room materials)
- Brooks Engineering Design Center: features high-power computer consoles with graphics and rendering software as well as color printers, etc.
Notable alumni
- Albert Carnesale, Mike Mills, Herb Lubalin, Eva Hesse, Chuck Hoberman, John Hejduk, Daniel Libeskind and Milton Glaser
- President and CEO of the Special Olympics Bruce Pasternack (also a member of the school's board of directors)
- Russell A. Hulse, a 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, is an alumnus. [2]
Cooper Union in pop culture
Cooper Union acts as a symbol of Progressivism in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel His Family by Ernest Poole.
In Susan Skoog's coming-of-age movie Whatever, a precocious suburban teen harbors dreams of moving to the city to study art at Cooper Union.[3]
Cooper Union is featured in an early scene in the now-legendary 1981 movie Downtown 81 starring Jean-Michel Basquiat.