Priorities:Cooper Union Student Priorities

The Cooper Union is a rapidly-developing ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation. The school is one of creators, something noticed and expanded upon by previous fellows and the current leadership circle. As an overview of the continuing plan for expanding this notion of creation on campus, the following seven points, including the newest plan, the Winter Intensive, will be the vision leading Cooper forward. The link to the Winter Intensive proposal to stakeholders can be found below.

UI Fellows 2016 Video Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3r5ms8-tTY

The 2016 UIF Team proposes Winter Intensive at Cooper Union: https://goo.gl/kDN2lm

Maker Space

There is potential for using a space across the street from Cooper as a Maker Space, due to a connection with the new Dean of the Engineering School

Currently in talks with professor Yash Risbud about making this happen (early stages)

No current space open to students for easy prototyping and creation; labs are locked, and most students do not have access

Would serve as a social hub beyond Frankie’s Kitchen, and would become a nurturing place for inter-school projects

Art, Architecture and Engineering

Move course locations to foster interaction
Free up space in the curriculum to take courses in the other schools as electives

Curriculum Restructuring

Fewer credits, and less time, allocated to unnecessary Physics courses
Eliminate Connect and Professional Development courses, and replace them with An Introduction to Creative Thinking and Problem Solving.

Additional Courses in I&E, as well as Design

Addition of a general I&E course open to all three schools
- Last year’s senior gift to Cooper Union was money to start a new course, which may not have been been used yet
Intro to Design Thinking course as a potential alternative, due to Art and Architecture school’s hesitation surrounding art-for-profit. Design Thinking would likely draw a much more mixed and interactive crowd at Cooper

Expansion of the idea behind NYU’s Demo Days at Cooper

Create a regular event for create@cooper, which doesn't necessarily need a guest speaker or large overhead to hold

This will ensure an active set of members who are inclined to attend larger events, beyond just the organizers and leaders

Potentially integrate with Code Club’s Hack For Pizza event (demoing hardware and software projects)

1000 Pitches

Former head of create@cooper, Sharang Phadke, had suggested that we hold an event called 1000 Pitches to get students thinking about inventions that they may have been considering making