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Poly Archives & Special Collections

Guide to the collections in the Poly Archives at Bern Dibner Library, New York University.

Student Curator Tommy Qiu

Spring 2023

Computer Science major Tommy Qiu ('23) curated the exhibit Noll and the Picturephone and gave a research talk in Spring 2023.  Qiu's work began as an online exhibit in 2022, as part of the Our Archives, Ourselves course.  Qiu was hired as a Poly Archives Student Curator in Fall 2022 to transform his research into a physical exhibit in Dibner Library in Spring 2023. To learn more about Tommy's research and the exhibit, read the Tandon news article Before There Was Zoom.

Photograph of the A. Michael Noll exhibit, displayed in the Dibner library space in Spring 2022. Included in the exhibit is a display case which features two display cases. Behind the case is an image of Noll in the middle and two black and white images of computer art created by the engineer. The image to the right of Noll’s image is likely “Computer Composition with Lines” and the one to the left “Computer-Generated Ballet.”   Exhibit opening flyer with collage of images from the Noll archive, including a black and white image of two people looking at a picturephone, a black abstract computer-generated image from the 1960s, a black and white headshot of A. Michael Noll from the 1970s, and a diagram of the picturephone with a green ear and a red mouth. Text of the flyer reads "Exhibit Opening: Noll and the Picturephone." A QR code is at the center of the flyer for people to register

Fall 2023

Business and Technology Management major Mahdi Chowdhury ('24) curated the exhibit Muslim Engineers @ Tandon and Beyond. Mahdi gave a research talk in Fall 2023, hosted a series of lunches with Poly/Tandon alumni and current Muslim Student Association (MSA) students, and was a leading force in creating a prayer and mediation room in Dibner Library.  Chowdhury's work began as an online exhibit in 2022, as part of the Our Archives, Ourselves course.  Chowdhury was hired as a Poly Archives Student Curator in Spring 2023 to transform his research into a physical exhibit in Dibner Library in Spring 2023.

Image of Dibner LIbrary exhibit cases in Fall 2023 with Mahdi Chowdhury's exhibit "Muslims @ Tandon and Beyond". There are 9 panels in the exhibit, arranged in a 3 by 3 square. Some panels have text about the history of Muslims in engineering, some panels feature Muslim Poly/Tandon graduates, and some feature photos of Muslim student clubs from the yearbook.

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