The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (also referred to as NYU Tandon) is the engineering school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United States.

The school dates back to 1854 when its predecessor institutions were separately founded: the University of the City of New York School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, which evolved into the NYU College of Engineering; and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, which evolved into Polytechnic Institute. In 1973, Polytechnic Institute acquired the College of Engineering from NYU, but in 2008, Polytechnic was absorbed by NYU to become its new engineering school. In 2015, NYU renamed the engineering school in honor of NYU Trustees Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon following their donation of $100 million to the school.

The school's main campus is in Brooklyn's MetroTech Center, an urban academic-industrial research park. It is one of several engineering schools that were founded based on a European polytechnic university model in the 1800s, in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States. It has been a key center of research in the development of microwave, Wireless, radar, electronics in general, polymers, industrial engineering, operations research and the US space program.

History

Predecessor institutions Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute On May 17, 1853, a group of Brooklyn businessmen wrote a charter to establish a school for young men. Founded as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, the school moved into its first home at 99 Livingston Street in Brooklyn. The first class, admitted in 1855, consisted of 265 young men aged nine to 17. The school conferred its first bachelor's degrees in 1871. Graduate programs began in 1901, and the school awarded its first doctoral degree in 1921. From 1889 to 1973, the school became known as the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

In 1917, the preparatory program separated from the Institute and became the Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School. Polytechnic Institute moved to its present location in 1957, the former site of the American Safety Razor Company factory, where it became a co-educational institution.

School of Civil Engineering and Architecture In 1854, the University of the City of New York, now New York University, founded the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture at a time when specialized schools of engineering were uncommon in America. Classes began in 1855 and the school awarded its first undergraduate degree in 1857. As the industrial revolution took shape, the school formalized its engineering curriculum and the school's first dean, Charles H. Snow, changed the name of the school to the School of Applied Science. During this time the engineering school officially separated from the university's arts and science school, then called University College.

In 1894, the University of the City of New York moved its engineering school to a new campus in the Bronx. The new campus gave the university space to build larger science laboratories that could not be constructed at its Washington Square site. With the addition of the new campus, under the leadership of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, the University of the City of New York renamed itself New York University. The neighborhood surrounding the Bronx campus eventually became known as University Heights. By 1920, separate electrical and chemical engineering departments were created, and the school changed its name to the New York University College of Engineering.

Acquisition of NYU College of Engineering by Polytechnic Institute Enrollment at New York University expanded considerably from the early 1900s into the postwar decades. However, by the early 1970s, this growth ceased due to rising crime and financial troubles in New York City. New York University faced financial hardships leading it to sell its University Heights campus that housed its engineering school to City University of New York, which in turn renamed the campus Bronx Community College. From 1969 to 1975, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn was forced to rely on subsidies provided by New York state to keep the school afloat. The state supported Polytechnic on the basis that closing the school would create economic hardship locally. With both the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and New York University facing financial difficulties, the state brokered a merger with New York University's engineering school. The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn acquired the faculty, programs and students of New York University's engineering school to form the Polytechnic Institute of New York. Polytechnic Institute of New York gained university status in 1985 and changed its name to the Polytechnic University.

By 1986, the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn was the largest technological university in the New York metropolitan area and the second-largest in graduate enrollment in the nation after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Of the 300 engineering schools in the United States, Polytechnic had the second-largest graduate enrollment and was among the most successful institutions in the country as a producer of science and engineering graduates who went on to doctoral studies. An average of 7.2 percent of Polytechnic graduates went on to achieve a Ph.D., compared with two other schools with large engineering programs: Carnegie Mellon, with an average of 6 percent, and Princeton, with 4.5 percent. Polytechnic University became well known for its research centers in electrophysics and polymer blends.

Partnership with Stevens Institute of Technology Prior to its merger with New York University, Polytechnic University maintained an active research partnership with the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. In January 2008, the two institutions jointly received a two-year, $570,000 grant from the National Science Foundation's Partnership for Innovation Program. The grant funded the creation of a joint Environmental Entrepreneurship Lab (E2-Lab), designed to accelerate the commercialization of environmental innovations either through adoption by existing companies or through the formation of new ventures. The collaboration was led on Polytechnic's side by Associate Provost for Research Kurt H. Becker and Director of Technology Transfer Bruce Niswander, and on Stevens' side by Lex McCusker, Dean of the Stevens Howe School of Technology Management.

Merger between Polytechnic University and NYU +Enrollment history1986 5,100 students2015 5,212 students Discussions about a merger with Polytechnic University and New York University began in 2004. Four years later, in 2008, Polytechnic University and New York University agreed to take steps toward a merger beginning with a formal affiliation between the two schools; this affiliation resulted in the school changing its name to the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. The schools officially merged in 2014 when the New York State Regents approved the change of charter making NYU the sole member of Polytechnic University.

Since the merger, applications to the school and incoming SAT scores have increased substantially. The school has also experienced an influx of students coming from outside of New York state. Fundraising and faculty research awards have increased since the merger. The school also opened a bioengineering facility in partnership with the medical and dental schools.

The school has had several fundraising campaigns over the years. From 2001 to 2005 the school raised more than $275 million. Alumnus Joseph J. Jacobs, who founded Jacobs Engineering Group, one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world, gave the school more than $30 million over the course of his life.

A gift of US$100 million from Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon in 2015 resulted in the school changing its name to the Tandon School of Engineering. New York University has committed to investing over $500 million to its engineering school in the coming years. In 2022, NYU announced it will invest $1 billion in the school to hire 40 tenure-track faculty members, improve lab and student spaces, and bolster the cybersecurity and artificial intelligence programs.

Name

The school started from two origins and has carried a number of different names: 1854: Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute; University of the City of New York School of Civil Engineering and Architecture (founding names, separate institutions) 1889: Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (also spun out Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School) 1896: New York University School of Applied Science (separate from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn) 1920: New York University College of Engineering (separate from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn) 1973: Polytechnic Institute of New York (acquired the faculty, programs and students of New York University College of Engineering) 1985: Polytechnic University (acquired university status) 2008: Polytechnic Institute of New York University (affiliated with New York University) 2014: New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering (merged with New York University) 2015: New York University Tandon School of Engineering

Campuses The NYU Tandon School of Engineering main campus is in Downtown Brooklyn and is close to public transportation routes. It is located in the Brooklyn Tech Triangle and about a 20-minute subway ride from NYU's main campus in Lower Manhattan. It is also connected to the Washington Square campus by the NYU Shuttle Bus system. In addition to its main address at MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn, the school offers programs in Manhattan. The school is an integral part of NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU Shanghai and the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) in downtown Brooklyn.

Brooklyn campus

The school played a major role in bringing about MetroTech Center, one of the largest urban university-corporate parks in the United States, while closing down the larger campus at its former Long Island Graduate Center. Today, the 16-acre, $1 billion complex in Brooklyn includes the school's main campus, along with several technology-dependent companies such as Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), as well as New York City Police Department's 9-1-1 Center, New York City Fire Department Headquarters and the U.S. technology and operations functions of JPMorgan Chase.

The school has seven buildings in Brooklyn, as well as leased spaces in some other nearby buildings. The seven buildings are as follows:

Jacobs Academic Building Jacobs Administration Building Rogers Hall Wunsch Building Dibner Building Othmer Residence Hall Civil Engineering Building (currently closed)

An eighth 460,000-square-foot space at 370 Jay St, adjacent to Rogers Hall, which houses the Center for Urban Science and Progress and other academic units within NYU, opened in Fall 2017.

The building at 333 Jay Street was the factory site for a number of razor blade companies. The last was the American Safety Razor Company. It relocated to Staunton, Virginia in 1954, giving the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn its new campus.

Manhattan sites

The Bioengineering Institute research facility is located at 433 First Avenue in Manhattan. The School of Engineering and Colleges of Nursing and Dentistry are located in the building where chemical, biomolecular engineers, as well as mechanical engineers do research in biomaterials and biotherapeutics for regenerative medicine.

The engineering school also has a location in downtown Manhattan. The downtown site offers degree programs in Financial Engineering, Management of Technology, Information Management and Accelerated Management of Technology, and the Exec 21 Construction Management certificate.

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