University students, faculty, administrators and public figures gathered to celebrate the finalization of the deal between NYU and the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, now the Polytechnic School of Engineering, to merge. The reception took place in the Lepercq Space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said New York State Sen. Martin Golden, who has supported the merger since planning began. “For me, it brings a lot of joy that we see this happening, we see everybody working together.”
The event featured speeches from numerous university and public figures, including dean of engineering Katepalli R. Sreenivasan; NYU President John Sexton; NYU Provost David McLaughlin; Assemblywoman Joan Millman; Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Diana Reyna; New York City Councilman Stephen Levin and Golden.
“Everyone is excited about the opportunities that the future holds,” Sreenivasan said. “The excitement is not simply about adding a new school to NYU, but in embracing the best of Poly’s traditions.”
Following the speeches, students and alumni from both the Washington Square campus and the engineering school accompanied Sexton and Sreenivasan back to the podium for a ceremonial ribbon cutting. Attendees watched a video of the ribbon being cut on Poly’s Brooklyn campus by a robot developed at Poly’s Mechatronics and Controls Lab.
Jared Frank, a Poly doctoral student who manages the Mechatronics and Controls Lab and was one of the creators of the ribbon-cutting robot, said the most exciting part of the merger is the prospect of collaboration between Poly students and students in NYU’s other schools.
“Our goal is getting the dentistry students, the medical students, the art students, the business students and the law students to interact with the engineering students, and hopefully that will produce a whole new generation of products, projects and research directions that are more multidisciplinary [and] interdisciplinary,” Frank said.
Scott Mullen is a deputy news editor. Email him at [email protected].