2009-2010 Bulletin – PDF - SEAS Bulletin - Columbia University

RESOURCES AND FACILITIES 5
A COLLEGE WITHIN THE
UNIVERSITY
A unique educational opportunity,
Columbia University’s Fu Foundation
School of Engineering and Applied
Science (SEAS) offers programs to both
undergraduate and graduate students
who undertake a course of study leading
to the bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral
degree in engineering and applied science.
Combining the advantages of a small
college with the extensive resources of
a major research university, students at
the School pursue their academic interests
under the guidance of outstanding
senior faculty members who teach both
undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Encouraged by the faculty to undertake
research at all levels, students at the
School receive the kind of personal
attention that only Columbia’s exceptionally
high faculty-student ratio affords.
THE NEW YORK ADVANTAGE
Besides the faculty, the single greatest
facility at a Columbia student’s disposal
is without doubt the City of New York.
Within easy reach by walking, bus, subway,
or taxi, New York’s broad range of
social, cultural, and business communities
offer an unparalleled opportunity
for students to expand their horizons or
deepen their understanding of almost
any human endeavor imaginable. With
art from small SoHo galleries to major
Uptown museums; music from Harlem
jazz clubs to the Metropolitan Opera;
theatre from performance art in the East
Village to musicals on Broadway; food
from French on the Upper East Side to
Asian in Chinatown; and sports teams
from the Jets to the Yankees, New York
is the crossroads of the world.
New York is fast becoming a major
player in high-tech research and development,
where Fortune 500 companies
traded on Wall Street seek partnerships
with high-tech start-up ventures in
Tribeca. And as more and more companies
discover the advantages of locating
in New York’s greater metropolitan area,
they join such long-standing facilities as
AT&T Laboratories, Bell Communications
Research, Exxon Research, IBM Research
Laboratories, International Paper,
NYNEX, and many other major companies
involved in high-tech R&D. As part
of the research community themselves,
Columbia students have exceptional
opportunities for contact with industry
both on and off campus. Senior representatives
of these companies often visit
Columbia to lecture as adjunct faculty
members or as special speakers, and
undergraduate and graduate students
frequently undertake research or internships
with these and other companies,
oftentimes leading to offers of full-time
employment after graduation.
In addition to its ties to private industry,
Columbia also has a historically close
relationship with the public sector of New
York, stretching back to the eighteenth
century. No other city in the world offers
as many impressive examples of the built
environment—the world’s most famous
collection of skyscrapers, long-span
bridges, road and railroad tunnels, one of
the world’s largest subway and water
supply systems. Involved in all aspects of
the city’s growth and capital improvements
over the years, Columbia engineers
have been responsible for the
design, analysis, and maintenance of New
York’s enormous infrastructure of municipal
services and communications links,
as well as its great buildings, bridges,
tunnels, and monuments.
THE UNIVERSITY AT LARGE
Columbia University occupies two major
campuses, as well as additional specialpurpose
facilities throughout the area.
Besides the main campus located on
the Upper West Side in Morningside
Heights, further uptown in Washington
Heights is the Health Sciences campus,
which includes Columbia’s medical
school (the College of Physicians and
Surgeons), the Mailman School of Public
Health, the New York State Psychiatric
Institute, and other health professions
programs. The Health Sciences Division
is an equal partner with NewYork-
Presbyterian Hospital in the Columbia-
Presbyterian Medical Center, the world’s
first academic medical center. The
medical center opened in 1928 when
Columbia’s health-related schools and
Presbyterian Hospital (which has since
merged with New York Hospital to
become NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital)
moved to the Washington Heights location.
The Engineering School’s new
Biomedical Engineering Department
has offices on both the Morningside
and Health Sciences campuses.
Beyond its schools and programs,
the measure of Columbia’s true breadth
and depth must take into account its
seventy-odd internationally recognized
SEAS 2009–2010