Countdown to the School of Engineering and Applied Science

Over the summer of 2011, Hofstra announced the establishment of a School of Engineering and Applied Science. The new school will combine and expand Hofstra’s existing departments of Engineering and Computer Science to develop a curriculum that emphasizes high-tech research, practical work experience and interdisciplinary study, integrating resources and faculty from other parts of the institution, including the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and the Frank G. Zarb School of Business. One key feature of the new school will be a co-op program in which partnerships with a network of industry leaders will offer students substantial work experience before they graduate.

On June 14, 2012, Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz announced the appointment of Dr. Simon Ben-Avi, an acting dean at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art - one of the nation’s top-ranked engineering schools, as the inaugural dean of Hofstra’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Dr. Ben-Avi began his career at The Cooper Union in 1984, as a professor of electrical engineering, and later became an associate dean in 1997. He also served as the institution’s C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Research for a decade. Dr. Ben-Avi has experience as an entrepreneur, a consultant, and has performed clinical trials and research projects with medical institutions, including Lenox Hill Hospital.

“It is a rare opportunity to create a new educational model, building on the existing strengths of an outstanding national institution of higher education, partnering with other science and art programs,” Dr. Ben-Avi said. “I look forward to the challenge of creating an engineering program and curriculum that connects students to industry and theory to application, encourages research and innovation while making a real difference in our region and our world.”

In conjunction with the new school, Hofstra is investing $4.5 million to upgrade facilities for the engineering and applied science programs, $3 million to renovate labs, classrooms and offices in the programs’ current home in Weed and Adams halls. The University is also building a new, $1 million biomedical engineering lab funded by the Empire State Development Corporation and supported by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council. The renovations are funded in part by a New York State grant, ENGine, in which Hofstra and Stony Brook University have partnered to increase the number of engineering students in the region.

The new school makes Hofstra only the third university in the New York metro area to have schools of law, medicine and engineering.