Initiatives & Incubators
Clubs serve as a great way for students and faculty to collaborate with third parties to drive practical innovation in sustainability, with tangible results. However, there are many more external organizations who could work with the university to coordinate resources and objectives. To this end, Tandon maintains various incubator programs and initiatives designed around third parties such as companies, government agencies, and more, to help drive growth and innovation in critical sustainability sectors. These programs aim to pool resources and align objectives across a wide range of industry participants, and are critical in accelerating and cementing the progress made through research and university activity. Through these programs, Tandon is one of top hubs for global players in sustainability innovation.
One example of such a program is the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub (OWIH), which connects numerous startups and local New York partners to advance the development of various aspects of the wind power industry. The OWIH is truly fascinating due to the specialization of its member organizations, and the way in which they work together. For example, one member is a VR company that helps build specialized VR training programs to train workers for complex tasks in offshore wind power environments. The company is called VinciVR, and its CEO, Eagle Wu, praised OWIH in an NYU Tandon press release announcing OWIH’s next cohort, where he said that “Through the program, we've been able to form partnerships with both the Empire Wind and Equinor team, as well as local trade organizations, the City University of New York, and Stony Brook University. We were also a recipient of the Equinor Workforce Development Grant.” (NYU Tandon). This program is an excellent example of Tandon’s stewardship of incubator participants, who are nurtured with tailored expertise and valuable partnerships.
Another instance of Tandon running an externally-facing collaborative development program is when in 2023 the university organized and hosted the inaugural Metropolitan Water Research and Innovation Workshop, a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) initiative. Hosting this inaugural workshop is yet another contribution by the school that spearheads the field of water management. Tandon’s press release announcing the event mentions many government and private organizations and notable individuals that would be participating. In the press release, the Megacities Alliance for Water and Climate’s acting secretary for the Euro-North American region, former head of the Tandon Civil and Urban Engineering Department Ilan Juran, is quoted as saying “‘NYU Tandon, with its emphasis on urban research with NYC infrastructure agencies and its global network of international collaborations with the world megacities, is particularly well positioned to support the development of innovative urban climate resiliency solutions and accelerate their deployment monitoring for facing the existential challenges of metropolitan ecosystems sustainability and the ever-growing effects of the climate change crisis” (NYU Tandon). This quote perfectly summarizes Tandon’s leadership and prestige in urban sustainability.
This is not the only time Tandon has tackled the challenges of advanced urban environments, as exemplified by the Accelerator for a Clean and Resilient Economy (ACRE), the flagship program of Urban Future Lab (UFL), Tandon’s accomplished center for urban-focused climatetech. ACRE is the longest running incubator of its kind in New York State, active since 2009, and provides tailored support to help drive success in promising climatetech companies. ACRE is widely known and well regarded, as displayed by a news article discussing many of Tandon’s sustainability innovations, that highlighted how “2016 was a banner year for the Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy [...] The Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) awarded ACRE with the prestigious Startup Supporter of the Year Award in October 2016, recognizing ACRE and UFL as NYC’s hub for smart cities, clean energy, and smart grid technology.” (Ryder). Some significant developments that have come out of ACRE include a sustainable alcoholic beverage that is distilled using carbon dioxide from the air, rather than ecologically taxing and toxic production methods of traditional grain-based spirits. The company, AIR, was recognized among Forbes’ Best Inventions of 2020, where the magazine explained that the product is “carbon negative: for every bottle that’s produced, the company’s NASA-award-winning technology removes about a pound of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere” (Forbes). Novel creations like this, that are recognized by the likes of NASA and have a real impact while still fulfilling a desire in the marketplace, are the kind of projects that ACRE, UFL, and Tandon are all about.
These are just some of the most notable among many such initiatives that have taken place at Poly/Tandon, that exemplify the university’s commitment to allocating resources towards meaningful projects that will fit together to change the world.