Back to Brooklyn

NEW YORK, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A short ride on the B63 from the park recently named for Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boy who crowed "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn," Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) is "Back to Brooklyn." This year will mark the first time in nearly four decades that the school will hold its commencement ceremony in its home borough rather than in Manhattan. 

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20091027/NY99197LOGO)

The May 23, 2013 ceremony at Brooklyn's Barclays Center will be the largest commencement in recent Poly history, with more than 1,000 graduates and an estimated 5,800 guests.

Presiding over the ceremonies will be Katepalli Sreenivasan, the newly appointed president of NYU-Poly.  Dr. Sreenivasan inherits the reins at a time of great excitement for the school:

• the pending full merger to become the NYU school of engineering in 2014;
• the recent ranking of NYU-Poly as No. 3 among all schools in PayScale's 2013 College ROI [Return on Investment] Report, which compares tuition investment to salary potential; and
• its selection by U.S. News and World Report as No. 9 among the Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs.  Many of the graduates of the NYU e-Poly distance learning program will be meeting each other for the first time during commencement week, after collaborating from far-flung locales during their online classes.

This year the school is granting two honorary degrees. Physicist S. James Gates, Jr., renowned for his work on supersymmetry and supergravity and the first African-American professor to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major research university in the United States, will address the new graduates. Dr. Gates, the John S. Toll professor and director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland, is recipient of the National of Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States. He serves on of the President's Council on Science and Technology. 

Honoree Josh S. Weston serves on the Executive Advisory Board at For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a longtime affiliate of NYU-Poly in engaging pre-college students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through robotics. He chaired ADP, the largest payroll and tax filing processor in the world, through 164 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth during his tenure as CEO. A Fulbright scholar, he serves in many voluntary roles including chairman of the board of Yeshiva University Business School, chairman of the Boys Town of Jerusalem and vice chairman of Business Executives for National Security.

About Polytechnic Institute of New York University
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, soon to be its School of Engineering. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit www.poly.edu.

SOURCE Polytechnic Institute of New York University