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Cornell Tech
About six-and-a-half years ago, when Michael Bloomberg was mayor, his administration wanted to expand the economic base for New York City and bring in a university that would teach in applied sciences and engineering. The land would be supplied to build a new campus as well as $100 million. Many, many colleges competed for the opportunity, and Cornell University in partnership with Technion (the Israel Institute of Technology) won the bid. It began in 2012 on Roosevelt Island, and on the campus of Cornell Tech, the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute is the place where the two universities collaborate on high-tech, graduate-level education and research.
How the schools attract people
“The school itself,” said Ronald Jay Brachman, director at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, “is pretty spectacular — very high-tech. If people from an academic or just a social perspective are interested in sustainability, the campus is very special.” Brachman said that The Bloomberg Center, the office, and academic building, “is a net-zero energy usage building with geothermal wells that have been sunk into the island, and the roof is covered with thermal paneling.” And it doesn’t stop there. The residential building “is using passive house technology,” which means that energy use is at a minimum.
Twice a year at the end of each semester, Cornell Tech “has a big event that we call Open Studio” where the students give presentations of what they are doing, which always involves entrepreneurship and innovation, he said.
Diversity deficits
Bold Business Co-Host David Grasso discussed the heavily male, White and Asian issue in the tech industry, which is as old as the industry. Grasso asked Brachman what, if anything, can be done about this lack of diversity. Brachman said that one of the big ways that this needs to be fixed is by having students get interested in tech at an early age. Organizations that Brachman is involved in, such as the Computing Research Association, are committed to bringing more diverse populations into the tech industry as well as other science areas by starting in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Non-homogeneous groups are not only more inclusive but usually create better innovations. Brachman said that mentorship also has a huge role to play in getting more diverse bodies, as well as women, interested in the tech industry.
Is this just competition with Silicon Valley?
Brachman said that their professors and students in the New York campus have “a little bit of local pride” with their work and progress in the tech industry. But he also mentioned that everyone cares deeply about the entire industry and the country. He said he does not feel that New York City and Silicon Valley are “at odds with one another.”
“I think we all need to be in this together [when it comes to bringing in] underrepresented populations, however,” he said. For example, people with disabilities, not just ethnic and gender diversity. “The East Coast and the West Coast are kind of on the same path, [inclusiveness] is really crucial for the success of the industry and of the country.”
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