ENGINEER UNCONVENTIONAL THE

2019 - 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW 5Letter from the Dean

Unconventional Year:

A Global Pandemic Hit. 7 We Hit Back.

Unconventional Engineer11 Unconventional Approaches to Pressing Issues 17

21Areas of Research Excellence

Awards & Achievements 25

NYU Tandon Board Top Employers 29 Centers and Institutes

LETTER FROM THE DEAN WHEN THE UNPREDICTABLE I don’t need to tell you that 2020 has been a year of great upheaval. In the face of a global pandemic, elections, and unrest, it has been made abundantly clear that the world is crying HAPPENS, OUR out for innovative, critical solutions to the greatest issues afecting our lives. When the unpredictable happens, our thinking has to be unconventional. And NYU Tandon is where unconventional engineers learn, teach, research, and invent. THINKING We are educating and empowering new generations of engineers who are capable of taking on unprecedented challenges. When the pandemic hit, we hit back. Our researchers attacked the problem head on, creating new technologies to study the way the disease spread and developing technologies to monitor symptoms and enhance testing. We were prepared because NYU Tandon has been working at the intersection of HAS TO BE engineering, healthcare, and life sciences since long before 2020. We’re creating next- generation solutions at every scale — from designing UNCONVENTIONAL “labs-on-a-chip” to engineering biomaterials for targeted drug therapy to improving the nation’s telehealth systems. We don’t wait for a crisis — we look to the future to make good health and safety a priority.

We’re also tackling threats to our lives in other ways. In the realm of politics, 5 we are building technology to keep the democratic process fair and accountable, whether it ’s tracking political ad spending or tackling the rise of deepfake technology. In an increasingly online world, our cybersecurity experts are ensuring public safety in digital spaces, and we’re helping build ethical AI, creating the next generation of robotics, redesigning cities so they work for everyone, and plenty more.

Our unconventional approaches are getting the recognition they deserve. We have rocketed more than 40 spots in the U.S. News Rankings in the last decade. Around half of our faculty members hold National Science Foundation CAREER or other young investigator awards. And we’re accomplishing all this by creating a school that is actually refective of the country we live in. We’re narrowing the STEM gender gap, building an inclusive and welcoming place for all, and improving as an institution in the process. We’ve implemented a series of diversity and inclusion initiatives, released strategic plans to ensure greater participation from all populations in STEM, and remained dedicated to creating a campus that does and Brooklyn proud.

Still, there is much work to be accomplished. The world has presented multiple problems that need to be addressed immediately. We’re excited to take it all on. When our engineers come together and bring their know-how, creativity, and energy to bear, you can be sure that the solutions come from here in Brooklyn. It ’s what we call NYU Tandon Made — ideas born from equal parts determination, street smarts, innovation, entrepreneurship, and a healthy measure of heart.

So come take a look at what we’re building at NYU Tandon. We promise, it ’s like nothing else you’ve seen before. On March 1st — four months after the frst reported cases in China — New York City recorded its frst confrmed case of COVID-19. A few weeks later, our city was the hardest hit area in the country. It was abundantly clear we were looking at the most devastating disease outbreak in decades, requiring a full-press commitment from scientists and researchers across the world. NYU Tandon engineers jumped into action, researching the mechanics of social distancing, developing wearable health monitors, and creating new tests to quickly identify new cases. A novel crisis requires unconventional solutions — that’s where we come in. UNCONVENTIONAL YEAR A GLOBAL PANDEMIC HITS. WE HIT BACK.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RAPID GRANT RESEARCH

HUMAN INTERACTION IN health anomalies through machine intelligence LEVERAGING A TIME OF PANDEMIC and data modeling. MOBILITY DATA

PAUL TORRENS CONSTANTINE KONTOKOSTA Department of Computer Science and Engineering; The device can be used in both home and Department of Civil and Urban Engineering; HCenter for Urban Science and Progress hospital settings, and by means of novel LCenter for Urban Science and Progress machine learning models, the data it produces Understanding how people move around can aid practitioners in detecting early How efective is social distancing? Will some and interact with each other in the public health anomalies and in predicting potential groups be more afected by the impacts of sphere became more vital than ever when adverse events. shelter-in-place mandates and the disease itself the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Torrens, whose than others? Those questions swirled as the research employs motion capture technology, extent of the pandemic was becoming evident, is now exploring how new forms of spatial and Kontakosta quickly marshalled anonymized behavior emerge and testing how existing RESILIENT smartphone location data from millions of theories of spatial behavior hold under INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS users in New York City to study “exposure extraordinary circumstances. density”—a dynamic measure of neighborhood YURY DVORKIN Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; activity levels—thus allowing public health Torrens is fne-tuning emergent relationships RCenter for Urban Science and Progress ofcials to estimate the likelihood of successful among citizen behaviours and regulations— containment eforts for specifc localities and work that could inform policy in this and future When many cities began enforcing predict where future localized outbreaks and public-health crises. As we navigate a new shelter-in-place policies in order to slow the chains of transmission could emerge. normal, human interaction will continue to help pandemic, Dvorkin, who heads the Smart defne us as a society, and Torrens is adding Energy Research (SEARCH) Group, part of 7 clarity to that defnition. the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Power Lab, knew it was likely to 3D-MAPPING have an efect on vital physical infrastructure HOT SPOTS systems such as gas, electricity, water, and INTELLIGENT, WEARABLE DEBRA LAEFER transportation. Given the looming danger that Department of Civil and Urban Engineering; TELEHEALTH DEVICES unusual demand could lead to outages and 3Center for Urban Science and Progress S. FAROKH ATASHZAR inability (or limited ability) to serve sheltered Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; population groups, he designed a model When the pandemic hit, Laefer immediately sent IDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; that can represent infrastructure operations researchers into the feld to observe potential NYU WIRELESS under various disease-outbreak scenarios and hot spots outside hospitals and mass transit YAO WANG inform the development of efcient strategies hubs to record what people were touching — Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; to mitigate these vulnerabilities. His project, and thus the most likely surfaces to carry the Department of Biomedical Engineering; NYU WIRELESS which bridges the gap between computational coronavirus. (Virus mapping dates to 1854, epidemiology and infrastructure modeling, when John Snow traced the source of a cholera In response to the pressing need for smart also has applications in the felds of climate epidemic in to infected wells.) NYU and scalable wearable technologies that could resiliency and environmental sciences and teams, however, used geospatial data to pioneer be produced rapidly to assist in monitoring public health and response preparedness. a more accurate and efective tool for this virus: COVID-19 patients, Atashzar and Wang 3D mapping. Their data is available through developed a wireless smart IoMT (Internet NYU’s Spatial Data Repository. of Medical Things) necklace containing sensors that can accurately, objectively, and Their study set the groundwork for machine continuously track multiple vital symptoms learning models to speed the analysis of how of respiratory malfunction and infection, a virus spreads in airports, grocery stores, thus covering a large spectrum of COVID-19 and playgrounds — anywhere large groups of symptoms, and predicting the probability of people come, touch things, and leave. NEW YORK’S UNIQUE CHALLENGES MAURIZIO PORFIRI Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: NDepartment of Biomedical Engineering; Department of Civil and Urban Engineering; Center for Urban Science and Progress

ZHONG-PING JIANG SHEDDING LIGHT Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ON PANIC BUYING ALESSANDRO RIZZO QUANYAN ZHU Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; (Visiting Professor) SCenter for Urban Science and Progress At the start of the pandemic, researchers in Zhu understands that panic is a natural human New York were stymied by various factors: behavior, but pair a propensity for panicked models from other contagions are not applicable hoarding with the human predilection for sharing to the novel coronavirus because they are on social media, he knew, and a vicious cycle confounded by its absence of symptoms in early occurs: frantic buying drives Facebook and Twitter stages, New York’s complex mobility patterns, posts about shortages (real or perceived) beyond and limited testing resources. local markets, leading to further panic buying. That consumer behavior was likely to result in Using data from New Rochelle — the New York overstocking, shortage of essential products, and suburb frst seriously aficted by the virus — a price hikes. team from NYU Tandon built a mathematical model specifcally for the city’s unique social He and his team collected and analyzed data and transportation structures. Their goal: to help relating to consumer buying patterns from a health and government leaders make smart, up- multitude of online and ofine sources and to-date testing and contact-tracing decisions. identifed relationships between behaviors with the help of statistical techniques. They successfully In a city where few own cars for drive-through predicted price hike points for such items as masks, assessment, and testing is often conducted at sanitizers, and disinfectants during the pandemic, hospitals already strained by the virus, they fndings that are used to inform price policies and provided quick, real-time scientifc insights. supply regulation of critical products to prevent They factored in the type and timing of testing, hoarding-related shortages. asymptomatic occurrence, and hospitalization stages, making that information freely WHAT WE CAN LEARN available to the public. FROM WASTEWATER ANDREA SILVERMAN WDepartment of Civil and Urban Engineering SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19, passes through the body and ends up in sewage, so cities across the nation already have facilities that could help ofcials track the spread of the disease locally: sewage treatment plants. Monitoring the concentration of the virus in wastewater can be more comprehensive than individual testing and can signal when a hotspot is developing.

Silverman is part of a team that developed a “startup blueprint” for municipalities that details best practices for sample collection, analysis, and interpretation, and speedy and appropriate translation and communication of results to public health decision-makers.

• Samrat Acharya, a • Responding to an early • The Tandon • Tandon researchers • Since CPAP/BiPAP Ph.D. student from nation-wide shortage MakerSpace designed created the NYU machines (non- Nepal—a country of protective personal and produced Tandon AirVENT, a invasive breathing where citizens have equipment that was desperately needed personal negative support devices) entail been forced to particularly acute in parts for powered air pressure hood to a non-closed-loop rapidly enter the New York, Tandon purifying respirators protect medical fuid circuit that can digital age to learn researchers designed and ventilator moisture personnel from emit aerosolized virus about health threats, a face shield for traps—elements that airborne particles, and contaminate the conduct business, and healthcare workers on break easily and must using a modifed and environment, Tandon communicate with the front lines of the thus be replaced easily portable salon researchers created family and friends— pandemic that could frequently and quickly. hair dryer. the NYU Tandon published guidelines be produced and AirMOD, using of-the- on cybersecurity and assembled in under shelf components in safe internet usage in one minute, a fraction novel arrangements to his native language. of the time render a closed-loop it took using circuit that prevents 3D printing. contamination and infection of others. OTHER COVID RESEARCH

CHARTING DISPARITIES IN CARE THE CENTER FOR RUMI CHUNARA Department of Computer Science and Engineering at NYU Tandon; CYBERSECURITY CDepartment of Biostatistics at NYU School of Global Public Health Since 2018 Tandon’s Center for At the start of the pandemic, researchers documented Cybersecurity has hosted and serious racial and ethnic disparities in risk of infection and updated the Index of Cyber Security, hospital outcomes. Would similar disparities be evident, polling practitioners and experts Chunara wondered, in those who accessed COVID-19 care around the world on cybersecurity via telemedicine. threat-related issues. In March, the index revealed an 11% rise in phishing Using electronic health record data from NYU Langone, concerns, correlating, closely with she and her fellow researchers discovered that Black the dramatic rise in the number of patients were not accessing care through telemedicine at people working from home because the same rate as white patients, and that mean income of COVID-19. Other risk indicators and household size were also signifcantly related to also rose during the month. Phishing telemedicine use. The fndings are important, not only — in which attackers typically target because they highlight the fact that the most vulnerable users via fake emails to obtain access among us may not have access to the same digital tools to computers and networks — was as others, but because population-level inferences (and by followed by increases in criminal extension public policies) are often drawn from the biased attacks (up 8%) and attacks against data generated by those tools. endpoint devices like computers or mobile phones (up 7%). The roots of healthcare disparities are complex, but Chunara’s work could help inform the design of remote C2SMART medical technology and promote digital health equity for all. CONNECTED CITIES WITH SMART TRANSPORTATION

The COVID-19 outbreak dramatically ENGINEERING A changed the process of getting DUAL-PURPOSE TEST around in New York and beyond, and C2SMART researchers have built an JIN MONTCLARE interactive dashboard that allows Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering E policymakers and researchers to examine the impact of the outbreak According to the World Health Organization, “Diagnostic on mass transit, commercial supply testing for COVID-19 is critical to tracking the virus, chains, personal travel, and more — understanding epidemiology, informing case management, as it unfolds. and to suppressing transmission.” So, what if there were a quick at-home test for the virus that was as easy and Drawing upon toll data, transit afordable as an at-home pregnancy test? Montclare is ridership, travel time, weigh-in- close to making that scenario a reality. motion trucking data, crash rate, and parking citations, among other Widely recognized for her work in protein engineering, sources, the dashboard is regularly Montclare explains that while detecting infection is crucial, updated with new data, metrics, identifying immunity is equally important to keeping and visualizations as they become outbreaks in check, especially as businesses reopen. To available. that end, she is helping create a test strip requiring just a drop of blood from a simple fnger prick; the strip — coated 9 Among the phenomenon with proteins specially engineered to grab onto signifcant documented up until now: targets will recognize either the virus or particular antibodies that are mounted by an individual’s immune response, making this a uniquely dual-purpose test. • An increase in non-shared modes of travel such as bike/scooter and a decrease in shared modes such as public transportation and ride-sharing

• A net decrease in home-to-work trips due to increased adoption of working from home

• A reduction in tourism

• A reduction in travel due to systemic unemployment and economic slowdown

C2SMART is studying how these shifts could afect our transportation systems in terms of useability, operating and capital budgets, and emergency preparedness, right now and as we move into the future. At NYU Tandon, engineering isn’t about and one graduate) were tapped to receive $5,000 each to develop and build their prototype in the fall, with the ultimate huddling over a desk — it’s about goal being to create a viable, market-ready product with the potential to join our start-up initiative, the NYU Tandon engaging with the world around us and Future Labs. the communities where we live. We’re • The frst of the three challenges charged students with fnding ways to retroft existing hardware so that it could be building the technologies necessary to used without human contact — thereby limiting the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses. Extend-O-Guard, an elastic, strengthen our democracy, ensuring polymer-coated, fexible spring band that consumers can use to cover the handle of shopping carts, rented bikes, and AI and other technologies are ethical, other such items, was deemed the graduate team winner, studying gun violence and its efects, and and the winning undergraduate project was a Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)-Controlled Zero Contact Buttons plenty more. Because good engineers Kit for use in elevators. build things — like a better world. • Challenge two called on competitors to use 5G and other wireless technologies to provide remote diagnostics, patient support, treatment, and beyond. The undergraduate winner was 5Glass, a device that enables medical responders to stream live footage of a patient during an ambulance ride, MEETING THE CHALLENGE while the winning graduate team came up with PhysioAI, an online platform using advanced machine-learning Before embarking on a demanding engineering program techniques to provide physical rehabilitation and therapy. in the fall, most students would be tempted to spend the summer simply relaxing. Yet when incoming students were • Challenge three asked “How can we use robots and robotics invited to participate in NYU Tandon’s 2020 Tandon Made to be assistive to doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers Challenge, which called upon them to team with their future in hospitals during pandemics such as COVID-19?” classmates to solve a pressing healthcare challenge in a post The winning graduate students answered with the COVID-19 world, more than 150 eagerly rolled up their sleeves. Disposo-Bot, an autonomous waste-collecting robot, and the undergraduates created InnoVate, a robotic IV There were more than bragging rights at stake: after a pitch pole equipped with an autonomous movement system to session, conducted via Zoom, two teams (one undergraduate minimize physical contact. ENGINEER UNCONVENTIONAL

BREAKING DOWN SILOS It ’s rare to come across a tech project that doesn’t require some combination of engineering disciplines: electrical, computer, mechanical, civil — they often all play a part, and that ’s not to mention the non-technical team members who might be required. The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program allows NYU Tandon students to choose from dozens of real-world hands-on projects and knock down silos by collaborating with peers from other majors. Building ground and aerial robots, using data science to track global dietary trends, or exploring the world of autonomous vehicles — there’s a project for almost any interest. Our VIP students are actively: SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE • Deploying computer-aided design, 3D printing, circuit fabrication, and biomedical research to create a better way to If you ever wanted to view New York City from a preserve and transport donor lungs for transplant recipients 11 rat ’s perspective, explore the secret life of yeast, or learn how to foil intrusive facial recognition • Prototyping customizable, low-cost orthotics for patients software, the 2020 Integrated Digital Media (IDM) with limited mobility Showcase was a must-see. • Designing and building of-road vehicles from the ground up — This year, for the frst time ever, the event was held virtually; and then racing them (pictured left) while that change of plans was necessitated by the COVID-19 • Creating robots capable of navigating the surface of Mars crisis, few people are more prepared to make a leap of that and a lot more type than IDM students, who, after all, possess talents ideally suited to an electronic arena. All of the projects can be viewed on the idm.show page, but if DISMANTLING DEPARTMENT WALLS you’re interested in ... No one denies that engineering disciplines have their own • Social Justice, check out Life Like Mine, a narrative game individual language and conventions. A barrier can exist, for by Brittney Mc example, between chemical or environmental engineers, who describe transformation of matter in the form of chemical • Urban History, download Metro ARchive, an app created by reactions, and electrical engineers, who use complex mathematical Sammy Levin and McCoy Zhu formulations to describe the interaction of the electricity network • Children’s Literacy, try ABCs of the Galaxy, an AR with its physical components. experience by Lauren Owen Still, three of Tandon’s assistant professors are fnding common ground and establishing themselves as early career pioneers of interdisciplinary research, according to the journal iScience. Environmental engineer Andrea Silverman, electrical engineer Yury Dvorkin, and chemical engineer Miguel Modestino are combining their knowledge to tackle complex societal problems at the intersection of their felds. Case in point: their provisional patent application for grid-integrated electrosynthetic hydrogen generators, which serve as building blocks of a larger vision to synergistically integrate water-electricity-chemical networks. CARLA GANNIS DARRYL REEVES, WHAT DOES AN INDUSTRY PROFESSOR OF INDUSTRY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF UNCONVENTIONAL INTEGRATED DIGITAL MEDIA COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ENGINEER LOOK LIKE? Gannis’s work sits squarely on the crossroads With billions of nucleotides in the human of art and technology, whether it takes the genome, there are way too many to look at form of animated GIFs, large-scale illustrations, individually, so an automated approach is 3D-printed sculptures, or augmented reality required. That ’s where computational biologists As Tandon faculty members experiences. Taking her inspiration from like Reeves come in. Because he has domain networked communication, art and literary expertise in biology along with mathematical prove, not all civil engineers history, emerging technologies, and speculative and computer science skills, he can develop fction, she explains that her pieces draw upon efcient computer-enabled methods for design bridges, and not all the incredible amount of media we now take in, comparing and analyzing genomes of any computer engineers are while also critiquing that phenomenon. size — a process that ’s made the modern study of genomics possible. Her latest work, Wwwunderkammer, plays on tackling the problems of the concept of “cabinets of curiosities,” antique Reeves has also explored communities of operating systems. Tandon collections of natural specimens, diagrams, and organisms such as the human microbiome, other interesting or exotic objects that often which plays host to trillions of bacterial cells engineers are involved in had elements of both science and speculation in addition to our own human cells. Some are or superstition. benefcial, and some can be harmful, but, again, every sector, and in sometimes it would be impossible to process, manage, and An interactive environment that viewers can analyze the entirety of the DNA present in these surprising ways. access in Social VR, Wwwunderkammer invites communities without the help of computers and viewers to choose an avatar and explore a vast sophisticated algorithms. In the past, he says, and richly detailed virtual dreamscape. Those you might not have been taught to think of familiar with Gannis’s body of work will fnd biology as a hardcore quantifable science, but familiar objects and themes throughout: pieces technology has changed that forever. reminiscent of the fantastical paintings of Arcimboldo; her own avatar, C.A.R.L.A. G.A.N. (Crossplatform Avatar for Recursive Life Action Generative Adversarial Network); and plenty of JULIA STOYANOVICH emojis, among them. While she examines how ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER digital media infuences the way we experience SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING AND THE the real world, Gannis ultimately wants her NYU CENTER FOR DATA SCIENCE audience to realize that, technology aside, we At a time when artifcially intelligent automated interact with the virtual every day, in the form of decision systems (ADS) are being used by banks culture, dreams, fantasy, and ideologies. to determine who gets loans, by landlords to determine who gets to rent an apartment, by employers to decide whom to invite for job BETH SIMONE NOVECK interviews, and by court systems to decide DIRECTOR OF TANDON’S who gets ofered bail or parole, it ’s disturbing GOVERNANCE LAB (GOVLAB) to realize that those systems can be inherently biased. Stoyanovich cautions that while it is Noveck is committed to studying the impact customary to think that the complexity and of technology on governing, and under her opacity of the algorithms involved are to blame leadership, The GovLab helps public institutions for some of these “bias bugs,” the data being design, implement, and assess innovative ways of used to train the systems is the main culprit. using tech to help institutions and people work Accountability for the decisions being more transparently and collaboratively. made by an ADS, however, always rests Among the Lab’s most recent work: exploring with a human being. how policymakers can responsibly reuse the She feels a deep responsibility to teach students public ’s personal data for crisis management about the social implications of the technology in an age of COVID-19 and for more efective, they build. A typical student, she says, has an inclusive policy making after the pandemic, engineer ’s desire to build useful artifacts, such substitute Among the Lab’s most recent work: as a classifcation algorithm with low error rates, partnering with the Inter-American Development but may not have the awareness of historical Bank to advise governments worldwide on ways discrimination, or the motivation to ask hard to most efciently and efectively address the questions about the choice of a model or of challenges of COVID-19. a metric. But that student, as she explains, will soon become a practising data scientist, infuencing how technology companies impact society. Among the unconventional teaching tools now at her disposal is the “Data, Responsibly” comic series, which she created in collaboration with graduate student Falaah Arif Khan. 13 ENGINEERING FOR EQUALITY AT NYU TANDON, WE ARE COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING A DIVERSE, VIBRANT, CREATIVE COMMUNITY OF PROBLEM- SOLVERS, INNOVATORS, INVENTORS, DESIGNERS, AND ARTISTS. OUR INITIATIVES INCLUDE: Inclusion at Tandon (I@T): aimed at creating an environment in which everyone can feel welcomed, respected, and supported. We want to be efective allies of Black and Latino students, the LGBT community, aspiring women STEM professionals, and all other groups historically underrepresented in STEM. We acknowledge that true allyship takes uncomfortable reckonings, constant vigilance, and above all, accountability. Black and Latino Men @ Tandon: to further our mission of being one of the leading educators of Black and Latino STEM scholars and industry professionals in Ethe nation and supporting them during every step of their journeys. Woman@Tandon: living for the day people don’t talk about “women in STEM” — just accomplished scientists, technologists, creators, and engineers who also happen to be women. Until then, we aim to be a leader in building a supportive environment where we all work together to increase women’s representation, retention, and success through a wide range of programs, services and activities, such as our WoMentorship Program and our annual Women’s Summit. Good engineering requires the unique perspectives of many diferent people coming together. Here at NYU Tandon, that goes beyond our interdisciplinary collaborations. Working with colleagues and students WE’RE HONORED in their careers. Meredith Mante is a great example, though not in the geographical from a diverse range of In early 2020, Tandon’s Department sense. Mante, an elite college pole-vaulter backgrounds and identities of Computer Science and Engineering who earned her undergraduate degree in received a National Center for Women and psychology at Princeton, remained right here creates opportunities for Information Technology Extension Services in Brooklyn, to accept a teaching post in Transformation (NEXT) Award for excellence Tandon’s Department of Computer Science critical engagement with in recruiting and retaining women in and Engineering. computing education. pressing issues we’re The NEXT Awards honor undergraduate facing today. And more academic departments that have increased THE CITY’S YOUNGEST ASPIRING women’s participation in computing education SCIENTISTS, TECHNOLOGISTS, perspectives only improves — an especially vital goal considering that a recent study revealed that while women AND ENGINEERS our unconventional outlook. earned 57% of all undergraduate degrees, Even in the midst of a global pandemic, they earned less than 20% of all computer and Tandon’s Center for K-12 STEM Education information sciences undergraduate degrees. found ways to engage virtually: for example, this summer’s CrEST (Creativity in Engineering, Science, and Technology) WIDENING THE PIPELINE TO program enlisted several Tandon STEM CAREERS undergraduate and graduate students to mentor young innovators and entrepreneurs Cybersecurity may be the hot spot, but from local high schools; the program nearly every area of computer science ofers culminated in an online showcase where attractive salaries and more empty seats than participants got to display the detailed people with the skills to fll them. People with CAD plans, YouTube-ready ads, savvy cost expertise in game design, artifcial neural analyses, and marketable prototypes they networks and machine vision, robotics, and had created. predictive modeling are in high demand. Tandon has long recognized the critical Until recently, however, people without the need to engage K-12 students, teachers, and right undergraduate degrees were locked schools in STEM topics through hands-on, out. A Bridge to Tandon opens the door: In authentic learning, and to that end, the Center as little as one semester, this intensive online has created dozens of innovative programs program gives highly motivated students with like always placing a strong emphasis a bachelor’s degree in non-computer science CrEST, on serving those from demographic groups felds the skills and tools to enter a rigorous that are underrepresented in STEM felds: master’s program. students of color, girls and young women, Since its inception the Bridge program has and those from less fnancially advantaged become known for taking its graduates far backgrounds. 15 Interdisciplinary work isn’t a buzzword for us — it’s a way of life. Engineers at NYU Tandon pride themselves on looking at a problem from a new angle, bringing in diferent expertises to paint a fuller picture of a groundbreaking solution. We’re bringing together the arts, political science, the humanities, and technology to create something brand new. DATA AND DEMOCRACY

ONLINE TRANSPARENCY NYU Tandon Professor Damon McCoy and doctoral student Laura Edelson are bringing truth to political advertising with the NYU Ad Observatory, a novel online tool that helps reporters, researchers, thought leaders, policy makers, and the general public easily analyze political ads on Facebook during campaigns and ahead of U.S. elections. DTransparency in political advertising is vital to ensuring safe and fair elections, but difcult to achieve without disclosure of funding. That information is not required for political ads on Facebook, which is used by nearly 70% of Americans, is by far the country’s leading source of news, and is the top social media destination for political advertising. To reveal the data beneath the ads, the team uses Facebook’s API and ad library reports, but enhances this information with additional features, including the ability to search by topic (like immigration), ad adjective (like donate), or total ad spend over time. The team also developed a crowd-sourcing tool integrated with the Ad Observatory called Ad Observer, which Facebook users can add to their Web browser and which allows them to help researchers drill down to state-level rankings of political advertisers by spend, learn who’s funding national and state-level advertising for major races, screen for problematic or misleading content, and contribute to improving NYU Tandon’s ability to fag that content. UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACHES TO PRESSING ISSUES DEEPFAKES AND GOING TO CONGRESS MISINFORMATION With legislation and regulation almost always

Deepfake technology lets almost anyone He’s tackling another tough problem as well. developed by ofcials working behind closed 17 create realistic-looking photos and videos of The dissemination of fake news on social media doors, the rates of trust in America’s institutions people saying and doing things that they never is a pernicious trend with dire implications for are at historic low. At a session on Capitol Hill actually said or did. Deepfakes pose a range of the world. Indeed, research shows that public this year, Beth Simone Noveck, director of political and social dangers, including eroding engagement with spurious news is greater than The Governance Lab (The GovLab) at NYU public trust, damaging personal reputations, with legitimate news from mainstream sources, Tandon, called upon government leaders to and undermining the electoral process. making social media a powerful channel for adopt new technology to improve citizen propaganda. engagement in lawmaking. She announced the Among the hardest aspects of detecting launch of “CrowdLaw for Congress,” a GovLab deepfakes is that digital photo fles aren’t A new study on the spread of disinformation training initiative that provides examples from coded so that it ’s evident when tampering has by Memon and his colleagues reveals that legislatures and parliaments around the world taken place. Professor of Computer Science pairing headlines with credibility alerts from for U.S. institutions to draw upon as they seek and Engineering Nasir Memon is taking a fact-checkers, the public, news media and even to deepen the foundations of democracy in proactive approach, creating a forensics- AI, can reduce peoples’ intention to share. uncertain times. friendly image right from the start using However, the efectiveness of these alerts varies tamper-resistant digital markings, rather than with political orientation and gender. The good She returned to Washington a second time the common tactic: initially focusing on good news for truth seekers? Ofcial fact-checking (virtually) after the COVID-19 crisis hit, for a visual quality and later hoping that forensic sources are overwhelmingly trusted. session hosted by the Select Committee on techniques work. the Modernization of Congress, where she discussed best practices for remote committee and member operations, and ways other legislatures around the world are handling business during the global pandemic. Made up of a consortium including , Columbia University, The New School, CUNY, School of Visual Arts, Manhattan College, and Pratt Institute, the NYC Media Lab at NYU Tandon facilitates prototyping projects across a wide range of disciplines and programs. Media Lab members are envisioning new ways of experiencing music, improving accessibility options for media consumers, pushing the boundaries of augmented reality and plenty more. The future of media can be found here in Brooklyn.

RESPONSIBLE AI

Tandon researchers regularly create all types of cutting-edge technology, including novel ways of using big data and artifcial intelligence. Those are complex issues with complex ramifcations, so it ’s imperative that ethics and responsibility be an integral theme of their work. Our new Center for Responsible AI is a hub for interdisciplinary research and the creation of best-in-class open-source tools and frameworks Rfor equitable data-sharing, increased transparency, and more. We’re developing standardized curricula so that every computer and data science student understands the importance of responsible AI, as well as educating current practitioners and the general public, and we’re establishing an AI for Good startup program, leveraging opportunities to apply artifcial intelligence to societal problems that are otherwise overlooked in pursuit of broad capital market opportunities.

INSIGHTS INTO GUN VIOLENCE

Surges in frearm acquisition after mass shootings are a well-documented phenomenon, but analytic research into the causes of this behavior — be it driven by a desire for self-protection, or a fear that access to frearms will be curtailed — has been sparse. A new study led by Institute Professor Maurizio Porfri applied a data science methodology to infer causal relationships and found that the decision to purchase a gun is driven by the latter concern — stricter regulations on gun purchase and ownership — more than by a desire to protect oneself. The study is part of a frst-of-its-kind efort backed by a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine causal relationships between potentially contributing factors such as frearm prevalence, state legislation, media exposure, and people’s opinion of frearm-related harms, all at the individual, state, and nation levels. all at the individual, state, and nation levels. 19 OUR AREAS OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE Our researchers are building a better world — not just by creating new technology, but by using that technology in a mission for justice, transparency, health, and safety. So, while it’s been an unprecedented year requiring attention to unprecedented and pressing challenges, we never lost sight of our focus on our core aims: exploring vital research areas, the intersections between them, and the tools needed to create world-changing solutions. with Accessibility in CYBERSECURITY Mind; activist technologists like It ’s become a truism that almost every business is now Benedetta Piantella, who has a tech business, given how deeply dependent every partnered with UNICEF and the The Urban Future sector has become on digital systems. And with every Earth Institute, among other Lab is a major driver facet of our lives now afected by those systems, it ’s institutions, on projects around more important than ever to make sure they don’t the world; and many others. of the Carbon to go unguarded. This year our researchers tackled We don’t only modify and the dangers of automatic software updates, DNA transform industry-standard Value Initiative fngerprinting, and much more. technologies, we create new (C2V Initiative), a • Software updates have long been prime targets for ones, and we’re doing it hackers, and the threat posed by such attacks has across every sector, including unique partnership grown as Internet-connected devices have moved entertainment, health, beyond computers and smartphones to include commerce, architecture, aimed at creating a medical equipment, automobiles, and many other education, urban planning, and devices. Associate Professor of Computer Science communications. thriving innovation and Engineering Justin Cappos’s open-source ecosystem for the technology, The Update Framework (TUF), is the industry standard for securing software update commercialization systems and is now used by the leading providers of SUSTAINABILITY cloud-based services, including Amazon, Microsoft, At a time when climate change of carbontech — and Google. This year, TUF achieved an important poses a grave threat to the technologies that milestone: it became the frst specifcation project to planet, and the viability of our graduate from the Linux Foundation’s Cloud Native water, energy, transportation, capture and convert Computing Foundation. (A specifcation — common and agricultural systems examples of which are HTML and HTTP — allows seems in grave danger, one carbon dioxide diferent implementers to create core functionality in major question looms: how a common, precisely defned way to solve a task.) do we efectively meet the into valuable • Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering needs of the present without products or services. Ramesh Karri is addressing the risks that arise at the compromising the ability of frontier between cyberspace and DNA biology. DNA future generations to meet Supported by the fngerprinting, a key process in a nearly $10 billion their own? global business that includes players like 23andMe Tandon researchers are State of New York, and AncestryDNA, identifes individuals from very developing new ways to the C2V Initiative small spans of their genetic material. This roughly generate clean energy, keep our 0.1% of the human genome unique to each individual water supplies safe, decrease will help innovative can also be used to prove that a DNA sample has our carbon footprint and more. not been tampered with or swapped between Their recent research includes: young companies collection and delivery to labs, a risk researchers identifed a decade ago. Karri and his colleagues • Associate Professor of enable rapid recently demonstrated a system for fagging any tampering by Chemical and Biomolecular creating “genetic barcodes” based upon these tiny regions. Engineering Ryan Hartman commercialization of is designing an intelligent • Thieves have several ways of obtaining data from the magnetic microsystem that uses a lab carbontech, bringing stripes on our credit cards and can then use it to produce reactor, liquefed catalyst, and counterfeit cards or to monetize data through other illicit activities. machine learning techniques potentially planet- Damon McCoy, assistant professor of computer science and to make industrial chemical saving technologies engineering, and his team analyzed a large set of data extracted processes faster and greener from an illicit online bazaar for buying stolen and leaked credit to market faster. It’s card information and discovered that chip-enabled cards are no • Assistant Professor of Civil guarantee of security. Among their other discoveries: cards issued in and Urban Engineering just one more way specifc states — like South Carolina — were more likely to have their Andrea Silverman, along with data purchased and cards issued by certain banks are considered Industry Assistant Professor we are engineering a more desirable than others to thieves Tega Brain and Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hénaf brighter future. (both from the Department of Technology, Culture, and EMERGING MEDIA Society), is studying how the efects of fooding — a Students and researchers in NYU Tandon’s Integrated Digital Media near-certain result of global warming — impact public health and (IDM) program are encouraged to experiment with Image, sound, infrastructure in urban areas. narrative, and interactivity — and entirely new ways of creating, experiencing, and relating to media end up emerging. • Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering André Taylor is improving hydrogen fuel cell technologies and We combine artistic inquiry with scientifc research and paving the path to a future that features technological practice — it ’s not STEM, it ’s STEAM — and explore vehicles whose only exhaust fumes are the social, cultural and ethical potentials of transformative water vapor; greatly increasing the technologies like augmented and virtual reality, social gaming, power conversion efciencies motion capture, user experience design, and more. of perovskite solar cells; and Faculty members include renowned artists and fnding ways to harvest composers like IDM co-director R. Luke DuBois, sunlight underwater. whose work has been exhibited at such venues 21 as the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern in Spain, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Aspen Institute; user experience experts like Reginé Gilbert, author of Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing ROBOTICS/DATA HEALTH SCIENCE/AI This year we welcomed a new chair of biomedical engineering, Andreas H. Hielscher, We’ve built a collaborative ecosystem aimed who arrives with decades of experience at harnessing the collective power of data, in translational, lab-bench-to-bedside and machine learning techniques, and autonomous an impressive record of developing new systems, and our researchers are blazing new biophotonic technologies applicable to breast trails: at the Medical Robotics and Interactive cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and peripheral Intelligent Technologies (MERIIT) Lab, for artery disease, among other conditions. Tandon example, we’re augmenting human capabilities researchers in his department and others have well beyond the norm, with a particular focus made enormous strides in recent months, and on neuro-rehabilitation and surgical robotic among their vast body of work has been: systems. At the Agile Robotics and Perception Lab, unmanned ground and aerial vehicles • Developing a machine learning model roam, and increasing autonomy is a major goal. that could improve the treatment of Our Machines in Motion Laboratory (pictured far Parkinson’s disease and other neurological right) asks: What are the algorithmic principles movement disorders that would allow a robot to run through a rocky • Conducting research focused on optimizing terrain, lift a couch while reaching for an object modifed T-Cell lymphocytes for the that rolled under it or manipulate a screwdriver immunotherapeutic treatment of cancer while balancing on top of a ladder? • Improving And they’re all working telehealth services in concert with our For biomedical for stroke victims data scientists, who are by designing discovering innovative and engineers, what novel control ethical ways to analyze, architectures visualize, and utilize the 2.5 they’re building is for safe, remote quintillion bytes of data the only as important sensorimotor world generates each rehabilitation and every day. as the patients • Finding Imaging In recent months, among biomarkers for numerous other major it can help save. very early changes accomplishments, we’ve: We’re reimagining in the optic nerve • Knocked over the hurdles area, well before to making 5G networks what a Department glaucoma can a viable bridge between cause loss of vision robotic systems and of Biomedical cloud servers — a feat Engineering can that presents tantalizing operational benefts, such be, building up the ALL THINGS as allowing robots to URBAN perceive the environment, faculty, and bringing perform complex NYU Tandon operations, and make a strong collaborative researchers are decisions autonomously, fnding ways to make all without incurring perspective to the the cities of the future major energy and weight school. In partnership smarter, greener, costs from onboard better connected, and computational and power- with NYU Grossman more resilient — goals we leverage our locale as a staging ground to generation equipment with added urgency fnd solutions for the global urban communities School of Medicine now that more than of the future. We know the cities of tomorrow • Designed Solo 8, a half of the world’s will be increasing dense and increasingly relatively low-cost, and NYU Langone population now lives in challenging, but we’re working on several fronts easy-and-fast-to-assemble urban areas, and that to ensure, for example, that quadruped robot that Medical Center, the fgure is only expected • Transportation infrastructure and systems can be upgraded and to grow over the modifed, opening the door department is creating are secure, efcient and resilient — work coming decades. (U.N. being conducted at C2SMART, our U.S. to sophisticated research projections state that and development to new methods of tissue Department of Transportation Tier 1 it will be more than University Transportation Center teams on limited budgets, engineering and 70% by mid-century.) including those at startups, • Environmental pollution, public health, smaller labs, or teaching repair, unique imaging Few engineering building safety, and the myriad other issues institutions schools can claim afecting livability are addressed using data- systems that can help the entirety of New • Demonstrated the driven, technologically advanced, scalable York City as a living methods — the focus of our Center for Urban potential dangers of screen patients for lab, as we can, and incorporating deep neural Science and Progress (CUSP) networks into automotive rare diseases, and systems, and revealed backdoor vulnerabilities in advanced prosthetics, the AI behind automotive computer vision systems among other projects. • Gained insights about Together, they are what kinds of cues infuence social behavior bridging the gap in the animal kingdom by between the lab and deploying an innovative system, called “behavioral the clinic to improve teleporting” — the transfer of the complete inventory human health. of behaviors and actions (ethogram) of a live zebrafsh onto a remotely located robotic replica COMMUNICATION/IT Our academic research center NYU WIRELESS offers its faculty, students, and its many major industrial- affiliate sponsors a world-class environment that is creating the fundamental theories and techniques for next-generation communications. By next generation, we don’t mean 5G (been there, helped pioneer that). NYU WIRELESS researchers are now beginning to imagine the possibilities of the sub-terahertz spectrum starting at 95 GHz, and the futuristic 6G Founder Theodore “Ted” Rappaport, a Institute Professor Elza Erkip, who has made applications that it can support, with some Wireless Hall of Fame inductee whose original many seminal contributions to the theory and research broke the ground for 5G practical design of cooperative and MIMO predicting mind-boggling speeds of 8,000 23 communications and who is often included on gigabits per second. Never mind that 5G Director Thomas Marzetta, a member of lists of the most-cited researchers in her field. enables a movie to download in a few seconds; the National Academy of Engineering often with 6G speeds you could download almost referred to as the Father of Massive MIMO 150 hours worth of screen programming, not to (multiple-input multiple-output) technology mention previously unimaginable medical and IoT applications. Associate Director Sundeep Rangan, a co-founder of Flarion Technologies, a spinoff Consider the caliber of its researchers, and of Bell Labs and developer of one of the first you’ll see that if science fiction writers can cellular OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division envision it, NYU WIRELESS can probably make multiplexing) data systems and the it happen. Among them are: precursor to LTE From our groundbreaking research to the excellent records of our students, we’re proud of all our accomplishments. Our forward- thinking, unconventional research and student output received more awards over the last year then we could reasonably list. That follows up on decades of recognition: half of our faculty members are now winners of CAREER or other young-investigator honors. Because at NYU Tandon, exceptional work is our standard. AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS Student Awards

DANIELA BLANCO Lemelson-MIT Student Prize MAKERBRACE AND SUNTHETICS No one who has followed Daniela SXSW Finalists DBlanco’s story at NYU Tandon — a story that includes garnering a $100,000 One of the most hotly anticipated Technology Venture Prize Mevents at South by Southwest (SXSW) at the NYU Stern $300K is the Innovation Awards, and this Entrepreneurship Challenge, year, two Tandon teams stood out the $20,000 top prize in the in the crowded feld as leaders in InnoVention Competition at the categories of student innovation Tandon, a $20,000 Stage and climate, culture & social impact: II VentureWell grant, top MakerBrace, an interdisciplinary student prize in the hotly contested team designing and fabricating low- Greentech category of the cost, highly adaptable, 3D-printed University Startup World Cup, braces for people with cerebral palsy, and the title of 2019 Global and Sunthetics, a Tandon-bred startup Student Entrepreneur of the developing AI-optimized chemical Year, to name just a few of her reactors for the sustainable manufacture honors — will be very surprised of nylon intermediates, using 30% less to learn that in early 2020, shortly raw material and 30% less energy and before earning her Ph.D. in chemical reducing manufacturing costs by 20%. engineering, she added yet another notch to her belt: an Lemelson-MIT ______Student Prize, which honors promising collegiate inventors around the country. NYU IGEM She was recognized, in part, for her Silver Medal development of reactors for sustainable chemical processes. When many people hear the name “E. Ncoli,” they think immediately of food ______poisoning or terrible gastric distress, but in reality, most types of E. coli are JASON LIPTON harmless and even serve to help keep U.S. Department of Energy Ofce of Science the human digestive tract healthy. Graduate Student Research Award A group of students employed the oft- JIt ’s not just a fgure of speech to suggest misunderstood bacteria in a project that that Jason Lipton, a Ph.D. candidate garnered them a silver medal at the 2019 in the Department of Chemical and International Genetically Engineered Biomolecular Engineering, is putting Machine (iGEM) Competition, the world’s the spotlight on lithium ion batteries. premier synthetic biology contest, which The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ofce draws hundreds of teams from around of Science Graduate Student Research the globe each year to create novel (SCGSR) tapped him to do experimental biological systems. research at the Argonne National Laboratory, where he can.explore how ______light afects energy storage in lithium ion batteries. KATIE ROSMAN National Science Foundation Graduate Argonne is home to a mile-long Research Fellowship synchrotron, a special kind of particle accelerator ideal for identifying KThe National Science structural features of materials and Foundation (NSF) Graduate for doing x-ray crystal studies “in Research Fellowship is the operando” — essentially in real time, oldest fellowship program of its while a catalysis process is at work. The kind and one with a remarkable research could lead to solutions to one track record of accurately of the major problems with rechargeable identifying recipients who go batteries: long charging times. on to achieve high levels of academic and professional ______success. (Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners, ZIYI MA Google founder Sergey Brin, Dwight David Eisenhower and Freakonomics co-author Transportation Fellowship Steven Levitt.) While it typically goes to doctoral candidates, master ’s student ZZiyi Ma, a graduate student studying Katie Rosman garnered the honor for Transportation Planning and her work in data science and her eforts Engineering, was awarded the 2019 to develop innovative machine learning Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation methods that are directly applicable Fellowship by the Federal Highway to critical real-world problems, Administration. The fellowship will allow including preventing opioid overdoses, 25 him to develop an open-source, agent- mitigating health disparities caused by based simulation tool for public transit environmental factors, and ensuring planning—an extension based on a that the algorithmic systems used to virtual test bed of New York City’s make bail and parole decisions are just large-scale transportation and equitable. simulation model. FACULTY HONORS WEIQIANG CHEN reproducibility and her eforts to increase Assistant Professor of Mechanical and the adoption of reproducibility best Aerospace Engineering; Assistant Professor practices in science. of Biomedical Engineering Dennis Shasta, a Courant professor who Young Innovator Award from the serves as the assistant director of Tandon’s WBiomedical Engineering Society NYU WIRELESS research center, was also one of the six 2020 recipients of the Chen was deemed a “Young Innovator of award, in recognition of his work on meta Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering” algorithms for machine learning. in recognition of his body of research, which employs principles of mechanical ______engineering and physics to identify the state of individual cells. The scholarship could lead to new methods of examining RAMESH KARRI how stressors such as injury and chronic Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering diseases like diabetes and hypertension at NYU Tandon, Co-founder and Co-chair of the drive cellular allostasis, a biological process NYU Center for Cyber Security of arriving at a new level of equilibrium. R Institute of Electrical and Electronics ______Engineers (IEEE) Fellowship

Karri was recognized by the IEEE for ANNA CHOROMANSKA his contributions to and leadership in Assistant Professor of Electrical trustworthy electronic hardware. His and Computer Engineering seminal work is helping ensure that the global hardware supply chain is as ASloan Fellowship secure as possible—an especially great concern in an age when chips are being The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awards manufactured at supplier foundries fellowships only to those whose “creativity, far from where they are designed, giving leadership, and independent research bad actors ample opportunity to install achievements make them some of the most malicious “Trojan horse” circuits or to pirate promising researchers working today,” intellectual property. Vulnerabilities in the according to the organization’s website. “To chain threaten not only personal computers receive a Sloan Research Fellowship is to and smartphones but automotive systems, be told by your fellow scientists that you major utilities, the aerospace industry, stand out among your peers.” nuclear facilities, and industrial equipment.

Among the early-career scientists and Karri is widely acknowledged for bringing scholars accorded that rare honor in the pressing need for strong hardware 2020 is Choromanska, who runs security to the attention of the industry and Tandon’s ECE Machine Learning Lab for placing NYU Tandon at the forefront of and is also afliated with the NYU the vital feld. Center for Data Science and NYU Center for Urban science and Progress ______(CUSP).

Her machine-learning research THOMAS L. MARZETTA focuses on both the theoretical and Distinguished Industry Professor of Electrical and the applicable, with current projects Computer Engineering; Director of NYU WIRELESS encompassing optimization, large data analysis, and robotics and autonomy. TNational Academy of Engineering (NAE) She is now collaborating with NVIDIA on an autonomous car driving project, Election to the NAE is among the highest and her work has also been used by such professional distinctions accorded to an companies as Facebook and Baidu. engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding The founder of the ECE Seminar Series on contributions to “engineering research, Modern Artifcial Intelligence, she brings to practice, or education, including, where Tandon other world-renowned researchers, appropriate, signifcant contributions to industry leaders, and Nobel laureates who the engineering literature” and to “the are making an immense impact on the pioneering of new and developing felds of development of new machine learning technology, making major advancements techniques and technologies. in traditional felds of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative ______approaches to engineering education.”

The NAE specifcally cited Marzetta’s JULIANNA FREIRE contributions to massive multiple-input Professor of Computer Science and Engineering multiple-output (MIMO) antenna arrays in wireless communications. Massive ACM Contributions Award MIMO – considered a key enabler for the J ffth generation of wireless technology, or Freire, who is a faculty member of Tandon’s 5G – utilizes numerous small, individually Visualization Imaging and Data Analysis controlled, low-power antennas to direct Center (VIDA) and holds an appointment streams of information, selectively and at the Courant Institute for Mathematical simultaneously, to many users. This confers Science, was honored by the Association spectral efciency orders of magnitude for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special greater than that experienced in 4G service, Interest Group on Management of Data along with high-quality service throughout (SIGMOD) for her fundamental the cell, simplicity and scalability, and contributions to data management outstanding energy efciency. methods and tools for computational MIGUEL MODESTINO KATEPALLI SREENIVASAN Assistant Professor of Chemical and Dean Emeritus of NYU Tandon; Eugene Kleiner Biomolecular Engineering Professor for Innovation in Mechanical Engineering MMIT Technology Review “Innovators KAmerican Physical Society Fluid Dynamics Under 35” and NSF CAREER Award Prize; Honorary Fellowship at India’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Both the NSF and MIT Technology Review American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognized Modestino’s work to integrate (ASME) Charles Russ Richards Memorial renewable-energy processes into the Award; Society of Engineering Science chemical industry and develop a path to (SES) G.I. Taylor Medal environmentally sound chemical production. Over the last several months, Sreenivasan Chemical manufacturing currently — who is also on the faculty of the NYU consumes roughly 10% of the world’s College of Arts and Science and NYU energy demand, mostly in the form of fossil Courant and is one of the rare few to hold fuel-generated heat for thermochemical the NYU distinction of being named a reactions, but Modestino’s research is University Professor, a title conferred upon advancing organic electrosynthesis — scholars whose work is interdisciplinary and which relies on electricity, not heat, to drive refects exceptional breadth — has added reactions — and which can be generated numerous laurels to what was already a by solar, wind, or other renewable means, lengthy list. thereby reducing carbon emissions compared to current methods for The American Physical Society noted his thermochemical reactions, which rely on “fundamental contributions to fuid dynamics, petroleum or coal. especially turbulence from quantum to astrophysical scales,” while ASME (in He has explained that if the industry conjunction with the Pi Tau Sigma Honor transitions from thermochemical to Society) cited his “outstanding achievements electrochemical processes involving clean in mechanical engineering for twenty years electricity sources, the reduction in carbon of more following graduation.” The Taylor dioxide emissions would be enormous. Medal was bestowed in recognition of his He estimates that implementing organic “outstanding research contributions in either electrochemical processes at large scale, theoretical or experimental Fluid Mechanics driven by solar or wind power, could result or both.” Sreenivasan’s honorary fellowship at in the sustainable production of well over a the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, third of all chemical products currently in Mumbai, is a distinction shared by only 19 being manufactured. others from around the world, several of whom are Nobel laureates and ______Fields medalists.

______THEODORE “TED” RAPPAPORT David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor of Electrical Engineering; Founding Director of NYU WIRELESS JULIAN TOGELIUS Associate Professor of Computer Science T and Engineering Wireless Hall of Fame and IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award JInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Outstanding Rappaport, who is also a faculty member Early Career Award of NYU Courant and the School of Medicine, was recognized by both the The IEEE Computational Intelligence Society IEEE and Wireless Hall of Fame as one of honored Togelius, who directs Tandon’s Game the preeminent thought leaders in the Innovation Lab, for his contributions to the wireless feld. feld of computational intelligence and games.

His pioneering research on radio wave A frequently-cited researcher, Togelius did propagation, wireless communication some of the world’s frst work on automatic system design, and broadband wireless game design, including co-authoring communications circuits and systems at research on modeling player behavior and millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies experience. He is the co-author of the 2019 (30 to 300 gigahertz) blazed a trail for the paper “Playing Atari with Six Neurons,” commercialization of ffth-generation (5G) which demonstrated that even simple wireless technology. AI systems can learn and which won the International Conference on Autonomous Before Rappaport published his seminal Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) 2013 paper, “Millimeter Wave Mobile 2019 Best Paper Award. Communications for 5G Cellular: It Will Work,” in an IEEE journal, few experts even “Essentially my work involves asking what acknowledged the possibilities of tapping AI can do for games, and what games can that underutilized spectrum. Now, NYU do for AI,” said Togelius. “I want to make WIRELESS, which Rappaport launched computer games adapt to their players upon arriving at the NYU Tandon School of through fnding out what players want Engineering in 2012, is moving well beyond

(whether they know it or not) and creating 27 5G research to new game levels, challenges, or rules explore the frontiers that suit the players.” of 6G and beyond. He is currently working on enabling tools to help game designers be more creative and using games to diagnose the shortcomings of reinforcement learning. NYU TANDON BOARD CHANDRIKA TANDON, Chair KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW Chair, NYU President’s Global Council Chairperson & Managing Director Chair, Tandon Capital Associates Biocon, Ltd. Vice Chair, NYU Board of Trustees C. DANIEL MOTE, JR. STEVEN M. COHEN President Emeritus Chair, Gateway Development Corp. National Academy of Engineering Member, Urban Development Corp. Trustee, NYU STAN POLOVETS Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO GARY D. COHN Foundation Former Director, U.S. National Economic Council C. CYBELE RAVER, ex ofcio Trustee, NYU Langone Health Deputy Provost, NYU

ANTHONY F. CONCOLINO, ex ofcio DASHA RAY RETTEW TANDON ‘82 President and Senior Technology Risk Ofcer Executive Advisor Bank of America Reservoir Advisors President, Polytechnic Alumni Trustee, NYU Association RAVINDER SAJWAN JOHN FRANKEL TANDON ‘84 TANDON Parent ‘19 CEO Founding Partner Renew Group Private Limited f Venture Capital RAMESH SRINIVASAN JAMES HAHN Senior Partner, New York Founding Partner McKinsey & Company Asia Alpha Private Equity JOSEPH S. STEINBERG Chairman CHARLES HINKATY Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. TANDON ‘70, ‘72 Life Trustee, NYU Retired President & CEO Del Laboratories, Inc. RANJAN TANDON, ex officio Trustee Emeritus, NYU Founder and Managing Member Libra Advisors and TAL KERRET Tandon Family Office President Silverstein Properties, Inc. DANIEL TISCH Managing Member JELENA KOVAČEVIĆ, ex ofcio Towerview LLC William R. Berkley Professor and Dean NYU Tandon School of Engineering PHIL VENABLES Board Director, Goldman Sachs MARK LESLIE Bank USA TANDON ‘66 Senior Advisor, Goldman Sachs Managing Director (Risk and Cybersecurity) Leslie Ventures Trustee, NYU FRED WILSON Managing Partner ALEXANDER LURYE Union Square Ventures TANDON ‘92, STERN ‘98 Chief Risk Ofcer Balyasny Asset Management, LP

JEFFREY H. LYNFORD President & CEO Educational Housing Services Trustee Associate, NYU 29 TOP EMPLOYERS CENTERS AND INSTITUTES

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NYU WIRELESS Dean of the NYU Chief Marketing Ofcer Coordinator Tandon School of Lauren Ptak Lennys Santana Engineering Jelena Kovačević Writers Karl Greenberg Associate Dean for Mari Rich Communications and Michael Richardson Public Afairs Sayar Lonial Graphic Designer Victoria Caswell engineering.nyu.edu | #NYUTandonMade

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