Youth in Engineering and Science

The Center for Youth in Engineering and Science (YES) is dedicated to empowering high school students to develop and explore their scientific curiosity. Thanks to the support of the Promise Scholarship Fund, one of NYU-Poly's premier scholarship programs, the YES Center opens the doors of opportunity to students who dream of becoming scientists, engineers, and technology professionals.

We sponsor outreach programs designed to motivate pre-college students to pursue scientific study based upon their understanding of, and fascination with, technology. We also host and play an active role in dynamic learning events like those listed below.

YES Events

The New York City Science and Engineering Fair

This event, which we host, brings together more than a thousand students from all five boroughs of New York to share their scientific research projects. Students compete for awards totaling almost $2,000,000 in the form of cash, scholarships, and prizes, which in the past, included a chance to represent NYC at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

The Vanguard Program

The Vanguard Program aims to help promising African American, Latino, and American Indian students overcome selection and retention conflicts through immersion-training and aggressive financial aid. With help from NYU-Poly, the Vanguard Program successfully increased engineering enrollments, improved academic performance and raised retention rates for underrepresented minority students.

FIRST Robotics Competition

FIRST challenges teams of students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in nationwide regional competitions. This year’s competition will involve over 32,000 high-school students from across the nation and around the world. NYU-Poly hosts the kickoff event for hundreds of participating students from New York City high schools.