Monday, October 24, 2011

New York City Edges Closer To Picking Team To Build New Applied Science Campus on Roosevelt Island

There's a huge contest to build a new education campus on Roosevelt Island - that would spur serious economic development and new r&d opportunities because of the focus on technology and engineering (applied sciences campus). Big money is involved, and so are big name research universities.

It's down to really 2 serious offers. One is from Stamford, the other from Cornell. I'm liking the Cornell group's chances, and that's not only because Cornell's group includes Technion U from Israel. Technion's graduates have gone on to great success internationally - half the Israel companies on the NASDAQ are headed by Technion alumni. There's tremendous entrepreneurial spirit there; and teamed up with Silicon Alley, it could lead to expanded economic opportunties throughout NYC and the region.

Roosevelt Island was picked because it had the space necessary for a new campus (Governor's Island was another option but had less transportation infrastructure available to make this happen anytime soon).

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