Dear Class of 2026,

First, let me say congratulations. 

Second, we all read the news. This is a moment of change. It is a moment of opportunity. So here is my advice to you.

This is the time of your life to be adventurous. To take risks. You have a great education that you will always be able to rely  on. You have spent your time here at NYU thinking deeply. Now is not the time to overthink, but to say yes to every opportunity that excites you, particularly if it is riddled with questions and unknowns. You will rise to the challenge with resourcefulness, hard work, and creativity — all of which you have, or you would not be here today.

Many of you think you have an idea of the future, and what your life will be. You have no clue. Neither does anyone else, no matter what they tell you. 

But do not let that frighten you, let it inspire you. You are exactly where you should be, at exactly the right moment. You are in the most enviable position a person can be in. The world is open in a way it will never quite be again.

Embrace what’s coming. You are more prepared than you realize. If you approach your future with joy, energy, and enthusiasm, it will be exhilarating. 

Good luck to each and every one of you,

Juan de Pablo

Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Executive Vice President for Global Science and Technology
New York University

Executive Dean
NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Dear Class of 2026,

Congratulations! Earning a degree from NYU Tandon School of Engineering is no small feat:  it takes countless hours of study, intellectual curiosity, and grit – that fierce determination to push through when problems don’t yield easily. You made it, and today I want to honor not just all you’ve accomplished, but everything it took to get there.

Well done!

I am so pleased to welcome you into the NYU Tandon Polytechnic Alumni Association — your alumni family, and one of the most vibrant engineering networks in the world. You are now among nearly 78,000 graduates spanning every corner of the globe, connected by a shared experience and a common commitment to building a better future. This community is yours now!

Staying connected has never been more important or more rewarding. Our Office of Alumni Relations hosts dozens of events throughout the year, offering opportunities to meet fellow Tandon graduates at every career stage, swap stories, forge collaborations, and discover possibilities you haven’t yet imagined. I encourage you to explore the Violet Network, NYU’s official online community, and to treat your alumni membership not as a chapter that’s closing, but as one that’s just beginning. The relationships you build with this network have a way of opening doors, sometimes ones you didn’t even know you were looking for.

And now, a word about what you’re stepping into. The technical rigor, creative problem-solving, and ability to collaborate across differences that you’ve developed at Tandon are exactly what the world needs right now. Whether you’re working on infrastructure, artificial intelligence, biomedical systems, sustainable energy, or any of the many fields your degrees have prepared you for, the work you do will touch real people’s lives.

That is a gift, but it is also a duty. Build thoughtfully. Consider who is affected by your decisions and who might be left out. Bring integrity and compassion into the room alongside your technical expertise. I know your professors have been saying this, but I’m saying it again, because it truly, truly matters.

Finally — and this is something close to my heart — I hope you’ll give back. Not someday, but soon. The students who come after you are watching, wondering if someone like them can make it. You are the answer to that question. Show up as a mentor. Attend an event. Share your story. The most powerful thing a Tandon alum can do is be present for the next generation, the way others were present for you.

Congratulations once more, Class of 2026. I am proud to call you colleagues, and I can’t wait to see what you accomplish next.

With warmth and great admiration,

Amy P. Batallones

President, Tandon Polytechnic Alumni Association
Managing Director, Blackstone

Yann LeCun

Executive Chairman of AMI Labs
Jacob T. Schwartz Professor at New York University

Yann LeCun is the Executive Chairman of AMI Labs and  the Jacob T. Schwartz Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute Courant Institute - School of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Data Science. He was the Chief AI Scientist at Meta (2018-2025), the founding Director of Facebook AI Research (2013-2017) and of the NYU Center for Data Science (2011-2014). He received an EE Diploma from ESIEE (Paris) in 1983, and a PhD in Computer Science from Sorbonne Université (Paris) in 1987. After a postdoc at the University of Toronto, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1988. He became head of the Image Processing Research Department at AT&T Labs-Research in 1996, and joined NYU in 2003 after a short tenure as a fellow of the NEC Research Institute. In late 2013, LeCun became Director of AI Research at Facebook, while remaining on the NYU Faculty part-time. He was visiting professor at Collège de France in 2016.

His research interests include machine learning and artificial intelligence, with applications to computer vision, natural language understanding, robotics, and computational neuroscience. He is best known for his work in deep learning and the invention of the convolutional network method which is widely used for image, video and speech recognition.

He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the French Académie des Sciences, a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, a fellow of AAAI and AAAS, the recipient of the 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the 2024 VinFuture Grand Prize, 2022 Princess of Asturias Award, the 2014 IEEE Neural Network Pioneer Award, the 2015 IEEE Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence Distinguished Researcher Award, the 2016 Lovie Award for Lifetime Achievement, the University of Pennsylvania Pender Award, and honorary doctorates from IPN, Mexico, EPFL, Université Côte d’Azur, HKUST, and Université de Genève. He is the recipient of the 2018 ACM Turing Award (with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio) for "conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing".