Marron-Taught Cool Course:

NYU News featured the NYU Gallatin course, “Applied Research to Solve Urban Problems,” taught by Marron researchers, in its “Cool Course” series. Students had the option to collaborate with NASA to collect air pollution data from sensors to train global satellite models for air quality forecasting, create a compendium of rules and regulations for road widths in densely populated cities throughout sub-Saharan Africa with an eye toward responsible urban expansion, and track locomotive emissions across the United States to create resources for parties interested in regulatory recommendations.

“We want to provide undergraduates with an opportunity to engage in mentored research in ways that typically wouldn’t be available to them until they went to graduate school,” says course organizer Kevin Ryan Cromar, director of the Health, Environment, and Policy Program at the Marron Institute.

Cromar took inspiration for the course from undergraduate experiences he remembers teaching him critical thinking, focus, and perseverance—skills he views as critical for solving complex, modern problems and competing in today’s job market. Cromar needed to partner with a school to establish the course, and worked with NYU’s Ethan Youngerman, director of undergraduate research in the Office of the Provost, and Professor Hallie Franks to establish the class at Gallatin.

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