Cooper Union

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.

Related Topics:
Chemical Engineering - Civil Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering

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Up to 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.

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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.

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The Master of Engineering program offers an opportunity for The Cooper Union undergraduate students to obtain a master's degree with one additional year of study after completion of the bachelor's degree.

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Curriculum

The curriculum before the class of 2007 requires 135 credits for graduation and has the following breakdown of credits:

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Required Courses:

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• 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:

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• 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.

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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.

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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".

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Curriculum development was supported by a planning grant from the National Science Foundation, under the Principal Investigator, 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.

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Facilities

• Micro 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 Lab: equipment and workbenches with oscilloscopes, multimeters, power sources, etc.
• Senior 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
• The Forrest Wade Rapid Prototyping Laboratory