Message from the Dean

Our school has roots in greatness; it was founded in 1854 and boasts Nobel laureates and Turing prize winners. The school has been on a transformational upward trajectory, moving up 40 spots since 2009 in the U.S. News and World Report. It is literally the birthplace of the American Dream; alum James Truslow Adams (1898) coined the term in his 1931 book The Epic of America. Women make up 43 percent of the Tandon Class of 2022; we strive to be the place where every smart engineer wants to be. Tandon offers a path into the middle class and beyond; approximately a third of our undergraduate students are the first in their families to attend college, more than one-third are Pell-eligible, and one in five is a member of an underrepresented minority (URM) group. We are home to a premier center for cybersecurity. It launched one of the first cybersecurity master’s degree programs (1998); runs the world’s largest student-run cybersecurity games, CSAW, with 20,000 participants annually; is home to The Bridge to Tandon, a program uniquely designed to give those lacking a background in science or engineering a gateway into earning a master’s in cybersecurity or other select master’s degrees. NYU WIRELESS is among the top academic research centers for 5G wireless communications, and our researchers are instrumental in launching one of the first two NSF city-size test beds for future wireless technology. Digital Learning is ranked by U.S. News and World Report among the Best Online Graduate Engineering programs for the 6th year in a row. We have the second oldest fintech program (1995), ranked #4 by the TFE Times. NYU Tandon is a school of innovation and creation; students can brainstorm, design, collaborate, and turn their ideas into actual working prototypes at our vibrant 10,000-sq.-ft. MakerSpace, with its array of state-of-the-art tools, from advanced software and milling machines to 3D printers and integrated manufacturing facilities; our Vertically Integrated Projects program allows them to focus on real-world projects so big and so important that they can span almost their entire academic careers; and opportunities for researching in state-of-the-art faculty labs and obtaining internships at top companies abound. The Center for K-12 STEM Education is on track to educating 500 teachers and positively impacting 50,000 public school students since 2013. NYU Tandon is home to the first city-supported tech incubator; our extensive network of startup business hubs now includes four such Future Labs (Digital, Data, Veterans and Urban). Among our faculty, we boast Distinguished Industry Professors David and Gregory Chudnovsky who devised an algorithm to calculate π with the most precision to date. Jerome Lemelson, one of the most prolific inventors of the 20th century and Eugene Kleiner, one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley are both alumni of Tandon. We even have a resident astronaut!

This exciting environment is the fertile ground that led to this strategic plan. The process of forming it was inclusive, thorough and transparent; together we — students, staff, faculty, Board, alums and community friends — will partner in its implementation and execution. The Tandon Torch will help us on the path of excellence and global societal impact. I am grateful to all of you, Tandon community for your work on creating this plan,

Jelena Kovačević

William R. Berkley Professor and Dean