September 22, 2014
Featured by Technical.ly Brooklyn.
Aliya Merali had been working in a plasma physics lab at Princeton, but she told us, “I wanted to work on problems where I felt like I would immediately be able to impact the quality of life of people around me.”
That’s why she decided to join the first class at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, the still new program that’s projected to take over much of Downtown Brooklyn’s old MTA building over the next few years.
Merali spoke to us last week, not long after graduation. CUSP emphasizes a practical orientation to student work, so students finish the program in internships with city agencies. Merali and two other students opted to take internships with the NYPD, where they worked primarily on data that came from 911 call centers.
