By Gavi Tropper, Features Editor
This fall, Yeshiva University will be rolling out the new Tsigutkin Electrical and Computer Engineering Initiative, YU’s first undergraduate engineering initiative.
For some time, YU has been looking to build engineering opportunities. “I can say for the Katz School, some kind of engineering was in our plan for the last five to seven years,” Dr. Paul Russo, Vice Provost at YU and Dean of the Katz School of Science and Health, told the YU Observer. But thanks to a 12.5 million-dollar donation from Alexander and Diana Tsigutkin, the door has been opened for an undergraduate engineering initiative, filling an important gap in YU’s educational offerings.
“Up until now, an undergraduate who was interested in engineering came from [a] Yeshiva high school and wanted to continue intense Jewish studies really didn’t have a place to do engineering,” Dr. Fred Fontaine, the newly hired director of the initiative, told the YU Observer. “So they either would go to a traditional secular school and do engineering there, or they came to Yeshiva and it might have been adjacent studies, but they really weren’t doing engineering. So we’re trying to build that opportunity out for the undergraduates.”
The initiative will consist of a cohort of around ten students per year intending to major in math or physics. Over the course of three years, they will complete 28 credits of new, specialized engineering courses in addition to their major’s courses. All members will also receive a $25,000 yearly scholarship and guaranteed admission to the Katz graduate initiative for computer science and engineering.
The initiative is entirely unrelated to the pre-existing relationship between YU and Columbia University, in which students who complete a degree in an engineering-related field can complete their Columbia undergraduate engineering degree in only two years. Students majoring in computer science will not be eligible for the initiative, as it does not fit around that major’s requirements.
The initiative will also not provide students with an undergraduate engineering degree. The reason is in part practical; an undergraduate engineering degree requires a larger engineering infrastructure and graduate initiative than YU currently possesses. But Dr. Fontaine also said, “I personally think if your career path is in engineering, the bachelor’s degree should not really be a terminal degree. You’re probably better off going for at least a master’s degree anyway. So in a sense, I think it’s more important for us to build out the graduate initiative for people who are really serious about a career in that direction.”
The undergraduate initiative’s classes will all be in-person and will be taught separately for men and women on the Wilf and Beren campuses in physics labs that are being refurbished with new engineering equipment. Whether students who are not in the cohort will be able to join classes is not yet entirely decided. Since the classes build off each other and are meant to remain very small groups, any interested students would have to speak directly with Dr. Fontaine to discuss joining.
Dr. Fred Fontaine, the new initiative’s director, taught at Cooper Union for 39 years and left his position as Chair of Electrical Engineering. He said that his move, in large part, was inspired by internal convictions.
“I’ve undergone a personal transformation. Yes, it was October 7, but it was what was happening on campuses after October 7 that, you know, I started wearing a yarmulke as an example,” he said. “What I thought was [that] if somebody’s gonna label me a Jew, I’m not going to let anybody put a yellow star on my chest. If I’m gonna be a Jew, it’s gonna be on my terms.”
One of Dr. Fontaine’s major goals is to integrate Jewish values into the curriculum.
“The idea is hopefully not that in the morning you study Talmud, in the afternoon, when you’re studying engineering, you can forget about it. What can we do to kind of bring some of the lessons from there into here, right?” he said.
Practically, this will come in the form of discussions about standards of ethics in the engineering field, as well as exploring the ethical and societal ramifications of engineering projects.
“Any engineering initiative has to talk about ethics and societal impact, and we’re certainly going to do that, but we’re also going to try to bring it in from a Jewish perspective,” he said.
Another hope for the initiative is to facilitate students working in the Israeli technological sector.
“If you’re a Jew, Israel is a very special place. And I think, you know, having opportunities to maybe spend a summer in Israel or to work with Israeli institutions will just benefit – and it’s certainly, I think, of interest – to many observant Jews on this side,” he said.
Though his Israel plans are a focus of the initiative, they have not yet been actualized. “Until we sign some kind of agreement or whatever, we’re not, we couldn’t really mention specific universities or companies,” Dr. Russo said.
Current YU students who were already intending to go into engineering do not feel they will be impacted much by the new initiative. “YU’s having a new department, I just don’t really care,” Eitan Nissel (YC ‘27), a physics major who is part of the Columbia undergraduate engineering partnership, told the YU Observer. “Also it’s electrical and computer engineering, not civil – [which is] what I’m going for,” he said.
“I definitely would have taken the engineering classes in undergrad, but I still wouldn’t have gone to Katz,” Ezra Cohen (YC ‘26), a physics major who graduated this past spring and is starting a Master of Engineering at Columbia, told the YU Observer. “It’s the same way as I had the option now to go to City College, which is way cheaper, and Columbia. City College is not a terrible institution, but Columbia is Columbia; the name is just huge, the opportunities are so much better.”
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