NYU Tandon Students Will Shine Under IDC’s Light Once Again

Brooklyn, New York (Sept. 11, 2019)—Students of the New York University Tandon (NYU Tandon) School of Engineering will extend their civil engineering and construction management educational experiences through research, prototyping and networking through a new gift of $130,000 from the IDC Foundation.The new gift will support two doctoral students and educational travel for other students in the programs.

Prior gifts from the IDC Foundation enabled NYU Tandon to establish the Institute of Design and Construction Innovation Hub, led by prominent transportation and construction executive Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, who serves as IDC Foundation chair in design and construction in the NYU Tandon Civil and Urban Engineering Department. The IDC Foundation is the legacy of the Institute of Design and Construction, the nonprofit technical college in downtown Brooklyn, New York, that trained more than 30,000 architects, engineers and other construction-related experts between its founding in 1947 and its voluntary closing in 2015. The IDC Foundation has made grants to NYU Tandon totaling $2.46 million since 2018.

Last year’s award of scholarships, fellowships and travel experiences from the foundation helped the department recruit a female doctoral candidate who is developing a method to enable construction workers to directly see digital building information without specialized equipment such as goggles or helmets. The candidate, Siyuan Xiang, is using mobile projective augmented reality (MPAR) technology to improve safety on construction sites.

It also allowed students in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering to participate in prestigious competitions:

• The NYU Tandon Concrete Canoe team won the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Concrete Canoe Regional Competition in New Jersey April 2019.
• The NYU Tandon Steel Bridge team won the regional ASCE-AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) Student Competition, held May 4, 2018. Additionally, a team of seven students and two faculty advisers traveled to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to compete against 41 other teams at the National Steel Bridge Competition June 23-25, 2018.
• A team of six students and a faculty adviser participated in the 29th Annual Associated Schools of Construction Region 1 Student Competition 2018.

“NYU Tandon plays a crucial role in the education of America’s best engineers, and the IDC Foundation is delighted to support NYU Tandon’s initiatives,” said Raymond R. Savino, president of the IDC Foundation. “Pivotal to that education is access to opportunities for NYU Tandon students to explore their interests within a range of influential experiences. It’s those opportunities—especially at the intersection of engineering, architecture and construction management—that the IDC Foundation supports and is pleased to enhance.”

NYU Tandon Dean Jelena Kovačević congratulated the students and thanked the foundation, noting, “For NYU Tandon, the ongoing work of opening doors and creating opportunities reflects our singular commitment to our students. Everything we do depends on this. While certainly the quality of our research, institutions and faculty is critical to our reputation, at the end of the day, the real measure of our achievements is written in the success of our students. The opportunities that this grant opens serve as an exemplar of the extent to which we are committed to supporting our best and brightest.”

For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.