Modern Robotics at NYU Tandon
So where are we now? What happened? How has Poly caught up in the robotics realm? We’re making progress, but we're not yet where our competitors are. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve made a lot of progress since the 1970s, and even more so since the early 2000s, but we still have a long way to go before we “catch up” with other schools.
Even though Brooklyn Poly is cited as one of the oldest Engineering Institutions in the United States, we are consistently outranked in both engineering and robotics by schools considered less “prestigious” with higher acceptance rates, such as Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Purdue. While this is most likely due to the financial difficulties Poly faced compared to many other universities, it's also possible they avoided investing in robotics for so long due to a lack of interest or desire, given prevailing views at the time that automation would take over jobs.
Currently, NYU Poly, now Tandon, has created a master's program in robotics and mechatronics engineering (partly thanks to Professor Kapila) that they cite as ranked 8th in the country (Contributors, 2015; Dhruv Avdhesh, 2022). However, even when you look up the best robotics schools in the United States or the northeast, we don’t come up.
(Contributors, N. T., 2023)
NYU Tandon is also still making initiatives with a new robotics center they just opened up called “Center for Robotics and Embodied Intelligence” (CREO), which is a new center dedicated to advancing “research, education, and innovation at the intersection of AI and robotics” located in 370 Jay Street, but considering this is decades later than Worcester Polytechnic, Rensselaer, and Carnegie Mellon, it’s still important to note that Tandon is still not dominating the robotics field compared to other universities (N. T. Contributors, 2026).
Additionally, NYU Tandon added a robotics minor to their curriculum in
We definitely don’t still just have two main robotics researchers anymore, there are a much larger number of Professors either listed as robotics experts, or participating in robotics research.
https://engineering.nyu.edu/impact/embodied-intelligence
These developments looked interesting for your conclusion: https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/story/2026/02/new-york-robotics-formally-launches-amid-surge-in-robotics-investment-demand-and-talent/26085Maybeybe there’s something about robotics being siloed or not? And, I wonder if that goes with some of what you’re seeing in the archives. Just one or tsuper-engagedged faculty isn’t enough to truly make a robotics program (or at least a powerhouse program).
What does faculty research and involvement in robotics look like at Tandon now? Today, do we just have 1-2 very visible researchers who are very interested in this. Kapilla very focused on outreach.
Have they hired people for CREO? Have that background and able to lead this more. Where does more institutional support and commitment come in?
What PR has happened? In those announcements if they are talking about money and investments and labs, or are they just like of course we got some robotics.
Absence of advertisement in brochures with robotics. Is there a moment where they really start to show the robotic dog etc. Curious about the front page of some of the brochures and the website from 10-15 years ago, what does it show engineering to be, and is robotics featured at all?
Institutional commitment versus a student club etc. Are they putting resources toward it? They weren’t.
2000s (Degree Programs): Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) was the first to offer a dedicated bachelor's degree in robotics engineering.
https://www.wpi.edu/news/long-history-first-robotics-competition
VIPs: RoboSub, NYU RoboMaster, NYU RDT, FAMS
Robotics Minor Classes: Haptics and Telerobotics in Medicine, Robotic Locomotion, Robot Vision
Have we caught up from being late to the game in robotics? Are we strong in robotics? CMU started early and stayed #1, Rensselear.
Robotics situated in what engineering? What is it? How does our school see it, how does that funding stream go?
Personal: Involved in a lot of robotics at NYU