Technion President's Historic First Visit to Cornell NYC Tech Chelsea Campus
Friday, December 21, 2012
By: Kevin Hattori

Almost exactly one year after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell University had won the competition to build a world-class applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie visited the Chelsea campus of the Cornell NYC Tech, home of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII). The visit took place on Friday, December 17.

(C)2012 Wendy Barrows all rights reserved

President Lavie (pictured above with Cornell Vice President Cathy Dove,  TCII Founding Director Craig Gotsman, and Cornell NYC Tech Founding Dean Daniel P. Huttenlocher) toured the facility and addressed the campus staff and faculty. He underscored the importance of the partnership to both institutions and to New York City, and of the excitement and pride that the project has generated in Haifa and in Israel.

The TCII is an academic partnership between Technion and Cornell, and is a key component of the Cornell NYC Tech campus.  TCII plans to offer a unique two-year interdisciplinary program where students earn dual master degrees concurrently – one from Cornell University and one from the Technion.  This degree program will allow students to specialize in applied information-based sciences in one of three hubs: Connective Media, Healthier Life and Built Environment.  Faculty and research staff will also conduct research in all three of these hubs.

Thanks to a generous donation of space by Google, the campus opened in the heart of Chelsea in July, where it will remain until the permanent campus opens on Roosevelt Island in 2017.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is a major source of the innovation and brainpower that drives the Israeli economy, and a key to Israel’s renown as the world’s “Start-Up Nation.” Its three Nobel Prize winners exemplify academic excellence. Technion people, ideas and inventions make immeasurable contributions to the world including life-saving medicine, sustainable energy, computer science, water conservation and nanotechnology.

 American Technion Society (ATS) donors provide critical support for the Technion—more than $1.74 billion since its inception in 1940. Based in New York City, the ATS and its network of chapters across the U.S. provide funds for scholarships, fellowships, faculty recruitment and chairs, research, buildings, laboratories, classrooms and dormitories, and more.