Author Archives: Amy Chen

Teachers Acquire Engineering Mindset

Two Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs, funded by the National Science Foundation, are taking place this summer at NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. Both programs provide guided training to the teacher participants before the teachers begin lab research with graduate students and professors. Based with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Science and Mechatronics Aided Research for Teachers with an Entrepreneurship expeRience (SMARTER) is focused on mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering, control theory as well as entrepreneurship. To introduce the teachers to entrepreneurship, the program involves site visits to the NYU Incubators, including the Urban Future Lab, and participation in the upcoming 7th Annual Inno/Vention Competition. Based with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the CSAW Summer Research Program for High School Teachers is focused on computer science and cyber security. Continue reading →

Almost Ready to Unveil Model Smart Cities

It is one week until Science of Smart Cities Expo day! The students have been involved with many hands-on and team-based activities to prepare for building and designing their model cities. They are also enjoying field trips around Brooklyn to gain historical and present-day perspectives on urban infrastructure, wireless communications, and transportation. Field trips include visits to the New York Transit Museum and the LEED Silver-certified Barclays Center. On the final day of the Science of Smart Cities program, the students will showcase the model cities that they built and present how their cities incorporate the engineering lessons they learned in the classroom and from their field trips.

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Opportunity Arises, and Curiosity Meets Passion

Tanzila, Ursula and Kip in 2013

Learning about Prof. Levicky's lab

The lab's ARISE team 2014

Taking the "pipette pledge" to work together and share data

Tanzila is an alumna from the inaugural Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering (ARISE) cohort in summer 2013. She joined Professor Rastislav Levicky‘s Bio-interfacial Engineering and Diagnostics lab where PhD candidate Ursula Koniges was her mentor. As a high school student, she contemplated chemical engineering studies in college. After a successful summer with ARISE, she kept in touch with Ursula and developed greater interest in engineering and research. This Fall, she will join NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering‘s Class of 2018. We asked Tanzila to tell her story. Continue reading →

SoSC Students Wow Their Teachers

Earlier this week, two middle school teachers from Bedford Stuyvesant Collegiate (from the Uncommon Schools network) dropped by the Science of Smart Cities classroom to see their students build circuits, as part of the Energy Unit of the program’s curriculum. The day of the visit, the students learned about the flow of electrons through a conductor and how the material of a conductor affects electrical current in the circuit they built.

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Ready for ARISE 2014 (Part 2 of 2)

In this activity, ARISE students consider principles in friction and weight with their robotic car.

Curriculum Highlight & Instructor Profiles: BRISK with Dominick Dennisur & Akshay Fadnis

How do you build a robotic car and collect data about the angles of the turns it makes and the friction it creates when moving on different surfaces? How can we visualize the data we acquire and use visualizations (maps, graphs) for analysis?

This summer, Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering (ARISE) students will focus on the above and more through Basic Robotics to Inspire Scientific Knowledge (BRISK), a 30 hour workshop. Students will participate in hands-on, interdisciplinary lessons involving math, science, computer programming, and robotics.

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Ready for ARISE 2014 (Part 1 of 2)

ARISE 2013 students deliver final presentations with confidence at the conclusion of the program.

Curriculum Highlight & Instructor Profile: Dimensions of Scientific Inquiry with Dr. Brendan Matz

How should we as a society best use the powerful knowledge produced in the laboratory? How do STEM researchers and professionals consider ethical issues relating to embryonic stem cells, online privacy, designer babies, drones and warfare, and genetically modified foods?

This summer, Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering (ARISE) students will focus on the above and more through Dimensions of Scientific Inquiry, a 30 hour workshop. Students will make connections between scientific laboratory research and skills in critical thinking, public debate, writing and presentation.

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Teach CSAW

Local students participated in a hands-on computer science learning activity on campus. These could be your students, learning from a computer science lesson you devise after a summer of research and training.

Local students participate in a hands-on computer science learning activity on campus. Teachers, these could be your students, learning a computer science lesson you devise after a summer of research and training.

NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering is home to Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs, funded by the National Science Foundation. High school teachers from the New York metropolitan area are invited to apply for our newest RET program on campus with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. CSAW Summer Research Program for High School Teachers will launch this summer.

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Integrating Robotics in Local Brooklyn Schools

Applying Mechatronics to Promote Science (AMPS), a GK12 Fellows Program funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), has completed its 6th year at the NYU School of Engineering. The program, led by Mechanical Engineering Professor Vikram Kapila along with Civil Engineering Professor Magued Iskander and the Center for K12 STEM Education’s director Ben Esner, pairs School of Engineering graduate students with local Brooklyn K-12 public schools. The graduate students work weekly with K12 classroom teachers to collaborate on STEM curricula and student teaching.

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Back to Malaysia: Bitara STEM

L to R: Ben Esner, Director of the Center for K12 STEM Education, Akshay Fadnis, MS Candidate in Computer Engineering, Eduardo Suescun, PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering, Dominick Dennisur, BS Graduate in Mechanical Engineering, Arnab Paul, MS Candidate in Electrical Engineering

The Center’s global partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences’ K12 education outreach program and the National University of Malaysia (UKM) continues this month with the Center’s second trip to Kuala Lumpur from February 13 – March 1. The goal for this trip is to adapt the Science of Smart Cities curriculum’s urban infrastructure, transportation, and wireless communications units for Malaysian high school students. In Malaysia, this adapted program is known as the Science of Smart Communities or Bitara STEM and this trip follows-up on the Center’s first trip last September.

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Go Teams! FIRST Activities Across NYC

The NYU School of Engineering is FIRST‘s only New York City partner and a supporter of many local schools’ year-round robotics programs. This 2013-2014 academic year season includes nine qualifier competitions for NYC FIRST Lego League and NYC FIRST Tech Challenge teams in the New York City area. FLL finalists compete at a championship in April at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and FTC teams compete for the NYC Championship here on our Brooklyn campus March 8.

Read more about the NYC FIRST Lego League Brooklyn Qualifier, held at the NYU School of Engineering on January 11. Nine of the teams that competed are part of the Central Brooklyn STEM Initiative.

View more photos from the FTC Long Island Qualifier, held on January 19.