Collaborations

Global Seed Grants for Collaborative Research

The University has announced awards to 26 teams of faculty in its new Global Seed Grants for Collaborative Research competition established by the Provost of NYU, together with the Provosts of NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. The winning teams were selected from among 45 teams involving 111 faculty members who submitted applications for this competition.

The aim of this program is to support research that strengthens collaborations among the schools at NYU in New York and the portals at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai, to develop research capacity across NYU campuses, to gain outlook and knowledge in international settings, and possibly to serve as a platform for obtaining future extramural funding.

The winning teams, each of which has at least two Principal Investigators from at least two separate portals, span the full range of academic disciplines and NYU schools. The awards, typically for two years and starting in April 2016, were made by the Global Collaborative Research Advisory Committee, a committee of faculty from NYU in New York, NYU Abu Dhabi, and NYU Shanghai. They are listed below.

Grant awarded for collaborative research linking NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai

Xing Tian (Neural & Cognitive Sciences, NYU Shanghai); Diogo Almeida (Psychology, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "The Role of Motor Representations in Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in Speech Perception"

Grants awarded for collaborative research linking NYU New York, NYU Abu Dhabi, and NYU Shanghai

Krishnendu Ray (Nutrition & Food Studies and Public Health, Steinhardt); Anna Greenspan (Global China Studies, NYU Shanghai); Mark Swislocki (History, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "DiverseCities: A Digitally Networked Urban Food Lab"
Jonardon Ganeri (Philosophy, NYU Abu Dhabi); Brad Weslake (Philosophy, NYU Shanghai); Anthony Appiah (Philosophy, FAS) for "Virtues of Attention: Ethics, Agency, Mind"

Grants awarded for collaborative research linking NYU New York and NYU Shanghai

William Glover (Chemistry, NYU Shanghai); John Zhang (Chemistry, NYU Shanghai); Yingkai Zhang (Chemistry, FAS) for "Developing Polarizable Quantum Mechanical Models to Simulate Photochemical Processes"
Marianne Petit (Arts, NYU Shanghai); Clara Fernandez-Vara (Game Design, Tisch); Rosanne Limoncelli (Film & Television, Tisch); R. Luke Dubois (Technology, Culture and Society, Tandon) for "Living Stories Through Technology"
Tim Byrnes (Physics, NYU Shanghai); Matthew Kleban (Physics, FAS) for "Investigating Cosmic Inflation with Quantum Information"
Kyunghyun Cho (Computer Science, Courant); Zheng Zhang (Computer Science & Engineering, NYU Shanghai) for "Model-Free Visual Object Tracking with Recurrent Neural Networks"
L. Andrew Wray (Physics, FAS); Andrew Kent (Physics, FAS); Pilkyung Moon (Physics, NYU Shanghai) for "Collaborative Investigation of Novel Topological Insulator Interface Physics"
Steven Lehrer (Economics, NYU Shanghai); David Cesarini (Economics, FAS) for "Specification and Estimation of the Birth Weight Production Function: Understanding the Effects of Inputs from the Health Sector"
Jeffrey Erlich (Neuroscience, NYU Shanghai); Robert Froemke (Otolaryngology, School of Medicine) for "Neuromodulatory Influences on Economic Preferences"
Xinying Cai (Neural & Cognitive Sciences, NYU Shanghai); Paul Glimcher (Center for Neural Science, FAS) for "Differential Contribution of the Central and Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex to Economic Choice and Reinforcement Learning"
Leif Ristroph (Mathematics, Courant); Jun Zhang (Physics & Mathematics, NYU Shanghai) for "Understanding the Hydrodynamics of Schooling through Physical and Biological Experiments"
Eyal Lubetzky (Mathematics, Courant); Vladas Sidoravicius (Mathematics, NYU Shanghai) for "Mixing Time and Motion by Mean Curvature for Glauber Dynamics of the Stochastic Ising Model"

Grants awarded for collaborative research linking NYU New York and NYU Abu Dhabi

Nader Masmoudi (Mathematics, Courant); Pierre Germain (Mathematics, Courant); Tej-Eddine Ghoul (Mathematics, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "Asymptotic Behavior of Nonlinear Parabolic Equations"
Michail Maniatakos (Electrical and Computational Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi); Brendan Dolan-Gavitt (Computer Science, Tandon) for "Firmware Emulation Platform for Smart-grid Devices"
Rafael Song (Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi); Daniel Malamud (Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology, College of Dentistry) for "Miniaturized Point-of-Care Molecular Diagnostic Device for Rapid and Accurate Detection of Malaria in Low-Resource Settings"
Saif Eddin Jabari (Civil Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi); Samer Madanat (Civil Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi); Kaan Ozbay (Civil and Urban Engineering, Tandon) for "A Decision-Support System for Resilient Transportation Networks"
Elza Erkip (Electrical & Computational Engineering, Tandon); Sundeep Rangan (Electrical & Computational Engineering, Tandon); Hamidou Tembine (Electrical & Computational Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "Learning and Incentive Mechanisms for Resource Sharing in Millimeter Wave Wireless Networks"
Weiqiang Chen (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Tandon); Mohammad Qasaimeh (Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "Plasmonic-based Microfluidic Biosensor for Immune Cell Phenotyping"
Khaled Omar Shahin (Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi); Nikhil Gupta (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Tandon) for "Innovative Design Strategies in Additive Manufacturing Techniques for Improved Security, Manufacturability, and Product Functionality"
Siddharth Garg (Electrical & Computational Engineering, Tandon); Ozgur Sinanoglu (Electrical & Computational Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "Provably Secure and Trustworthy Electronics"
Mohamed Eid (Electrical & Computational Engineering, NYU Abu Dhabi); Peter Loomer (Periodontology & Implant Dentistry, College of Dentistry) for "A Hepatic-based Simulator for Periodontal Training"
Carlos Guedes (Music, NYU Abu Dhabi); Godfried Toussaint (Computer Science, NYU Abu Dhabi); Juan Bello (Music & Performing Arts Professions, Steinhardt); Robert Rowe (Music & Performing Arts Professions, Steinhardt) for "Creation and Analysis of a Digital Repository of Middle Eastern Music"
Carol Dysinger (Graduate Film, Tisch); Scandar Copti (Film & New Media, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "NYU Global Documentary Arts"
Clayton Curtis (Psychology, FAS); Kartik Sreenivasan (Psychology, NYU Abu Dhabi) for "How Spatial Priority Facilitates Feature-Based Working Memory"
Samreen Malik (Economics, NYU Abu Dhabi); Kevin Thom (Economics, FAS) for "Infrastructural Development and Labor Market Response"

International Conferences

NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi offers a lively forum for the exchange of ideas with local audiences as well as worldwide academic and research communities. The NYUAD Institute, Arts Center, and Art Gallery present academic conferences, lectures, and performances and exhibitions from distinguished scholarly guests and professional artists from around the world.

To see the Abu Dhabi events calendar, click here.

NYU Shanghai

NYU Shanghai hosts a range of conferences for researchers to reflect and respond to leading issues. The annual VINS Forum offers a platform for unique collaboration on risk in global financial markets. The Kavli Futures Symposium on Neuroeconomics provides opportunities for researchers to engage in dialogues on neural models of economic decision-making. The NYU Interactive Media Arts program presents lectures and workshops aimed at enriching discussion on emerging forms of media.

To learn more about events in Shanghai, click here.

Courses Across the Global Network

Faculty in multiple schools at NYU teach classes that span the University's portals and global academic centers.

Art & Politics in the City: New York and Buenos Aires

Offered through Gallatin School of Individualized Study

Instructors: Alejandro Velasco (NYU NY) and Florencia Malbran (BA)

Spring 2015
Fall 2015
Spring 2016
Fall 2016
Spring 2017

Structure: Students in New York and Buenos Aires meet simultaneously via videoconference and work from the same syllabus. Instructors switch locations midway through the semester.

Course description: This course brings together students in New York and Buenos Aires to examine how urban arts and politics intersect in the Americas: How are art and politics understood and expressed differently and similarly in these two American metropolises and why? How do shared aesthetic features of public art in the city reflect the global circulation of urban creative modes? What do we learn about local politics from looking at the art and writing on a city’s public spaces? Teams of students in both cities will conduct field work in selected neighborhoods to help create an archive of murals, graffiti, performances, and installations. Then, drawing from readings in history, art criticism,and urban studies, as well as from census and electoral data and using GIS technology, we will analyze how social and political processes like gentrification, inequality, and planning generate and reflect creative political expression as captured in our database, culminating in transnational, collaborative projects that explore what the art and writing of city streets reveals about urban life in 21st century America.

Queer Cultures and Democracy

Offered by Gallatin School of Individualized Study

Instructors: Gabriel Giorgi (NYU NY) and Mariano Lopez Seoane (BA)

Spring 2015
Spring 2016

Structure: Students in New York and Buenos Aires meet simultaneously via videoconference and work from the same syllabus. Instructors may switch places halfway through the semester.

Course description: In the last ten years, several Latin American nations have witnessed decisive progress in the legal recognition of non-normative sexualities and gender identities. Argentina passed the same-sex marriage law in 2010 and the gender identity law in 2011, followed by Uruguay; Colombia approved the legal recognition of same sex couples; and in Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil, the pressure of queer demands and visibility in the public sphere is stronger than ever. The conventional map of “advanced democracies” crafting models of democratization that could be exported to less developed nations seems definitely challenged; a new understanding of the complex, and multiple temporalities of queer cultures in North and South America is more necessary than ever.

In order to explore this rich and multi-layered landscape, this course wants to trace and reconstruct the historical detours of queer cultures in Buenos Aires and New York. Taking as starting point the present context of growing acceptance and inclusion of queer citizens both in Latin America and the US, the course revisits the last three decades in order to question the dominant and frequently reductive narratives of steady, lineal progress. Our goal is precisely to advance a periodization sensitive to the nuances and contradictions of this complex historical transformation.

Topics in Judaic Studies: Contemporary Jewish Societies in Western Europe

Offered by the Hebrew and Judaic Studies Department (Arts and Science)

Instructors: Marion Kaplan (NYU NY) and Marcella Simoni (Florence)

Spring 2016 (Inaugural)

Structure: Taught synchronously via videoconference in New York and Florence. Each professor will visit the other location midway through the semester.

Course description: This course explores the interactions of Jews and other Western Europeans after World War II, noting their interlocking histories and memories even after the Holocaust. Students will learn about Western European Jewish life from Emancipation through the early 20th century, the Holocaust and the immediate postwar turmoil, especially in Germany, Italy, and France. They will analyze how Italians, Germans (East and West) and French citizens did or did not come to terms with the Fascist and Nazi past. They will study Jewish perspectives on their lives in Europe, including those of the Displaced Persons, but also those of Jews who chose to stay in their homelands. The class will learn why these Jews remained, how they experienced their citizenship, and how they interacted with non-Jews.

Readings will also analyze Jewish memories and memory cultures in a variety of nations and segments of society. Assignments look at conflicting European and Jewish historical memories, including the general silence about the Holocaust of the early postwar years, the Jewish demand for reparations, the attractions of Israel for some Jews, and the growing acknowledgement of the Holocaust in political culture as well as the building of museums and monuments about Jewish history and the Holocaust.

Where the City Meets the Sea

Offered by the Biology Department (Arts and Science)

Instructors: John Burt (NYU AD), Lisa Weber (London), and Mary Killilea (NYU NY)

Spring 2012
Spring 2013
Spring 2014
Spring 2015
Spring 2016

Structure: Students in Abu Dhabi and London collaborate with students attending an identical course in New York. Most collaboration will be asynchronous, via email, with four simulcast lessons taught by Professor Burt or Professor Killilea. There are also student-led discussion sessions.

Course description: Over half of the human population lives within 100 kilometers of a coast and coastlines contain more than two-thirds of the world’s largest cities. As a result, the world’s natural coastal environments have been substantially modified to suit human needs. This course will use the built and natural environments of coastal cities as laboratories to examine the environmental and ecological implications of urban development in coastal areas. Using data from multiple coastal cities, student teams will use field-based studies and Geographic Information System (GIS) data to examine patterns and processes operating in coastal cities. This course uses the local terrestrial, marine, and built environments as a laboratory to address these issues, and team projects requiring field work form a core component of the learning experience.

Worlds of World War One

Offered by the FAS History Department and Liberal Studies (Arts and Science)

Instructors: David Ludden (NYU NY), Philip Drummond (London), and Lindsay Davies (NYU NY)

Fall 2016
Fall 2017
Fall 2018

Structure: The course will meet at seven joint videoconference meetings in New York and London. Online interaction and shared materials will be conducted through an interactive webpage and student blogs that facilitate virtual conversations and collaborative student work.

Course description: This global history of World War One is a team-taught NYU Global Network course bringing together NYU faculty in History, Cultural Studies, and Film Studies, in New York and London, to provide an international, interdisciplinary learning experience for NYU students. In Liberal Studies, this course will be part of the Global Liberal Studies curriculum, designed primarily for seniors. In History, the course would be open to all students.

The technological basis for course integration will also include student blog entries from weekly response paper assignments and a “Worlds of World War One” website that will integrate all parts of the broader NYU History Department WWI project, for which this course serves as the main curricular platform. This course is emphatically interdisciplinary. It is not only about the study of history from books and textual primary sources; it is also designed to introduce students to the range and diversity of material that we can use to explore worlds of war, including interpretive prose, painting, poetry, fiction, films, TV dramas, museums, monuments, and archives of public and private material.

All the instructors in these interconnected World War One courses are committed to the idea that World War One has continued relevance today, not only as a memory or as history “in the past,” but as a laboratory for the study of modernity and the world we live in today.