Columbia University was founded in 1954 in New York as one of fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities. Today, Columbia is one of the world's top research universities. With a mission to create a distinguished learning environment for students in a variety of scholarly and professional fields, the university has added various resources and facilities over the years, including a university research park. Through OpenCourseWare, Columbia makes its considerable resources available to the public, offering free course materials in several areas of study including engineering, medicine, and law.