6 ms·

Cornell Said Chosen for NYC Engineering Campus

36 points by apaprocki 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
michaelpinto 15y ago
This is so depressing -- what NYC really needs is Stanford or MIT. Cornell is a wonderful school, but there is nothing to indicate that they know anything about tech...
- secretasiandan 15y ago
  If you're asserting that Cornell has a poor engineering program, I think you need to do a little more research "Among graduate engineering programs, Cornell was ranked 9th in the United States by U.S. News in 2008" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University I don't think NYC needs a Stanford or MIT, they need someone who will treat the NYC campus as a primary focus. For that reason Columbia and Cornell should come first. You might argue that Columbia already has a presence but that doesn't mean they're NOT hurting for space. Furthermore, Cornell already has a NYC presence as well.
  - newhouseb 15y ago
    Yeah, for anyone who wasn't know (I only found out recently), Cornell's medical school is in NYC.
  - michaelpinto 15y ago
    how many CEOs or CTOs of silicon valley success stories are cornell grads? how many many startups that get funding are headed by grads from cornell? and since when does US News and World Report know anything about technology? i've been paying my dues in silicon alley since the late 80s and this isn't what i've been waiting for my entire life...
- whatthefish 15y ago
  From Wikipedia: A number of Cornellians have been prominent innovators, starting with Thomas Midgley, Jr. ('11),[287] the inventor of Freon. Jeff Hawkins ('79)[288] invented the Palm Pilot and subsequently founded Palm, Inc. Graduate Jon Rubinstein ('78)[289] is credited with the development of the iPod. William Higinbotham developed Tennis for Two in 1958, one of the earliest computer games and the predecessor to Pong, and Robert Tappan Morris developed the first computer worm on the Internet. The most direct evidence of dark matter was provided by Vera Rubin ('51).[290] Jill Tarter ('66)[291] is the current director of the SETI Institute and Steve Squyres ('81)[292] is the principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Eight Cornellians have served as NASA astronauts. Bill Nye ('77) is best known as "The Science Guy".[293] Really, you should know the Robert Morris one off the top of your head at the very least.
  - 3am 15y ago
    The CTO of RightScale, Thorsten Von Eicken, taught the undergrad computer architecture course (CS 314) for a couple of semesters.
  - Alex3917 15y ago
    Also, Cornell is named after a guy who made his money in the communication technologies business. Unlike Yale, Stanford, Duke, and most of the other elite schools in the U.S., which are named after drug dealers.
    - kloncks 15y ago
      Drug dealers!? Please elaborate.
      - Duff 15y ago
        Elihu Yale was a Governor of the British East India Company, which made the King rich by peddling drugs to the Chinese, among other thing. Don't know about the rest.
        15y ago
- rayiner 15y ago
  Cornell has an excellent engineering school (much better than Columbia or NYU). Not quite as good as Stanford or MIT, but a much stronger ties to NYC.
- csmajorfive 15y ago
  You are terribly misinformed. Cornell has a fantastic CS program and in general a very strong engineering school. #5 in CS: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu... #9 in Engineering: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...
hkarthik 15y ago
I really hope that this becomes a trend and other cities follow suit. It's really unfortunate that many US cities have focused on having world class Business Schools or Law Schools rather than Engineering schools.
mathattack 15y ago
I was also hoping for Stanford. This is not meant to disrespect Cornell - I just question how additive it will be. Cornell has long produced great Engineers, but many wind up in NYC anyway. Will cutting the prop plane to Ithica really be a game changer? The most interesting part is the Technion angle. With Stanford, you could accomplish two things. First of all, you add incremental Engineering talent. Second, uoubopen a new network and way of thinking. It really could have been a game changer. My question for Hizzoner Da Mayor... Why not both?
- absconditus 15y ago
  Stanford pulled out last week: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-16/stanford-pulls-out-of-nyc-competition-for-engineering-campus.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-16/stanford-pulls-o...
- cornell532 15y ago
  Cornell is also planning to build 2,000,000 sf. That's more than 2x as much as the next closest (Columbia) which, in turn, is far more than any other proposal. Cornell's proposal was just very big and ambitious.
  - mathattack 15y ago
    Interesting. In Columbia's case I would ask, "you are already there, what are you waiting for? Free land?"
    - cornell532 15y ago
      Basically, yes.
dr_ 15y ago
I have nothing against Cornell, it's a great school, but I'm not sure where this logic that the city needs a tech school comes from? There are a number of top notch universities in the NYC area. The city alone is home to NYU and Columbia - isn't it easier to just beef up the their programs by redistributing space and using the money to attract faculty members? Has Carnegie Mellon resulted in a tech startup ecosystem in the city of Pittsburgh? Seems more like a political play on the part of Bloomberg. If you want to build your company into a Apple, Intel, Google, etc. in NYC - good luck finding the space to do it. What you will more likely see in the city are smaller sized startups that will find success in working alongside with the many other industries that exist in the city, such as finance, media and fashion. And that's not a bad thing.
- alexholehouse 15y ago
  Cornell alread has its medical school (Weill Cornell) in NYC. This may allow for more interdepartmental medically oriented research - I know for a fact the lack of general science teaching available to students at Weill Cornell (which does research degrees as a well as medical degrees) means they have to send students to NYU/Columbia, which can cost over $10000 per student per year.
- cornell532 15y ago
  Google just bought a 3,000,000 square foot building on 8th avenue. Seems like they were able to find space.
Duff 15y ago
Makes sense. Cornell is already New York's land-grant college, and has affiliations with the State University of New York and state government. They probably have an edge in getting government funds, and the relationships with the state legislature to make it happen.
siculars 15y ago
The comments here seem to undercut Cornell's technical pedigree and completely discount the fact that this is a joint proposal with the Technion - The Israeli Institute of Technology. Today's press conference, which I watched in its entirety, specifically highlighted the entrepreneurial culture and mindset (in addition to world class science) that the Technion will bring to the table above and beyond the traditional graduate level sciences provided by Cornell. I shouldn't really have to list the accomplishments of the Technion in this forum. Its faculty and alumni have had a hand in thousands of patents, hundreds of companies listed on American stock exchanges (not to mention Israeli or European) an outsized influence on virtually every technology we use today, have attracted R&D centers for many global technology leaders and, oh ya, a number of Nobel prizes. This is actually a Very Big Deal (TM) for New York City, Cornell, The Technion and Israel.

36 points by apaprocki 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

This is so depressing -- what NYC really needs is Stanford or MIT. Cornell is a wonderful school, but there is nothing to indicate that they know anything about tech...

secretasiandan 15y ago
If you're asserting that Cornell has a poor engineering program, I think you need to do a little more research "Among graduate engineering programs, Cornell was ranked 9th in the United States by U.S. News in 2008" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University I don't think NYC needs a Stanford or MIT, they need someone who will treat the NYC campus as a primary focus. For that reason Columbia and Cornell should come first. You might argue that Columbia already has a presence but that doesn't mean they're NOT hurting for space. Furthermore, Cornell already has a NYC presence as well.
- newhouseb 15y ago
  Yeah, for anyone who wasn't know (I only found out recently), Cornell's medical school is in NYC.
- michaelpinto 15y ago
  how many CEOs or CTOs of silicon valley success stories are cornell grads? how many many startups that get funding are headed by grads from cornell? and since when does US News and World Report know anything about technology? i've been paying my dues in silicon alley since the late 80s and this isn't what i've been waiting for my entire life...
whatthefish 15y ago
From Wikipedia: A number of Cornellians have been prominent innovators, starting with Thomas Midgley, Jr. ('11),[287] the inventor of Freon. Jeff Hawkins ('79)[288] invented the Palm Pilot and subsequently founded Palm, Inc. Graduate Jon Rubinstein ('78)[289] is credited with the development of the iPod. William Higinbotham developed Tennis for Two in 1958, one of the earliest computer games and the predecessor to Pong, and Robert Tappan Morris developed the first computer worm on the Internet. The most direct evidence of dark matter was provided by Vera Rubin ('51).[290] Jill Tarter ('66)[291] is the current director of the SETI Institute and Steve Squyres ('81)[292] is the principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Eight Cornellians have served as NASA astronauts. Bill Nye ('77) is best known as "The Science Guy".[293] Really, you should know the Robert Morris one off the top of your head at the very least.
- 3am 15y ago
  The CTO of RightScale, Thorsten Von Eicken, taught the undergrad computer architecture course (CS 314) for a couple of semesters.
- Alex3917 15y ago
  Also, Cornell is named after a guy who made his money in the communication technologies business. Unlike Yale, Stanford, Duke, and most of the other elite schools in the U.S., which are named after drug dealers.
  - kloncks 15y ago
    Drug dealers!? Please elaborate.
    - Duff 15y ago
      Elihu Yale was a Governor of the British East India Company, which made the King rich by peddling drugs to the Chinese, among other thing. Don't know about the rest.
      - 15y ago
rayiner 15y ago
Cornell has an excellent engineering school (much better than Columbia or NYU). Not quite as good as Stanford or MIT, but a much stronger ties to NYC.
csmajorfive 15y ago
You are terribly misinformed. Cornell has a fantastic CS program and in general a very strong engineering school. #5 in CS: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu... #9 in Engineering: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/...

hkarthik 15y ago

I really hope that this becomes a trend and other cities follow suit. It's really unfortunate that many US cities have focused on having world class Business Schools or Law Schools rather than Engineering schools.

mathattack 15y ago

I was also hoping for Stanford. This is not meant to disrespect Cornell - I just question how additive it will be. Cornell has long produced great Engineers, but many wind up in NYC anyway. Will cutting the prop plane to Ithica really be a game changer? The most interesting part is the Technion angle. With Stanford, you could accomplish two things. First of all, you add incremental Engineering talent. Second, uoubopen a new network and way of thinking. It really could have been a game changer. My question for Hizzoner Da Mayor... Why not both?

absconditus 15y ago
Stanford pulled out last week: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-16/stanford-pulls-out-of-nyc-competition-for-engineering-campus.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-16/stanford-pulls-o...
cornell532 15y ago
Cornell is also planning to build 2,000,000 sf. That's more than 2x as much as the next closest (Columbia) which, in turn, is far more than any other proposal. Cornell's proposal was just very big and ambitious.
- mathattack 15y ago
  Interesting. In Columbia's case I would ask, "you are already there, what are you waiting for? Free land?"
  - cornell532 15y ago
    Basically, yes.

dr_ 15y ago

I have nothing against Cornell, it's a great school, but I'm not sure where this logic that the city needs a tech school comes from? There are a number of top notch universities in the NYC area. The city alone is home to NYU and Columbia - isn't it easier to just beef up the their programs by redistributing space and using the money to attract faculty members? Has Carnegie Mellon resulted in a tech startup ecosystem in the city of Pittsburgh? Seems more like a political play on the part of Bloomberg. If you want to build your company into a Apple, Intel, Google, etc. in NYC - good luck finding the space to do it. What you will more likely see in the city are smaller sized startups that will find success in working alongside with the many other industries that exist in the city, such as finance, media and fashion. And that's not a bad thing.

alexholehouse 15y ago
Cornell alread has its medical school (Weill Cornell) in NYC. This may allow for more interdepartmental medically oriented research - I know for a fact the lack of general science teaching available to students at Weill Cornell (which does research degrees as a well as medical degrees) means they have to send students to NYU/Columbia, which can cost over $10000 per student per year.
cornell532 15y ago
Google just bought a 3,000,000 square foot building on 8th avenue. Seems like they were able to find space.

Duff 15y ago

Makes sense. Cornell is already New York's land-grant college, and has affiliations with the State University of New York and state government. They probably have an edge in getting government funds, and the relationships with the state legislature to make it happen.

siculars 15y ago

The comments here seem to undercut Cornell's technical pedigree and completely discount the fact that this is a joint proposal with the Technion - The Israeli Institute of Technology. Today's press conference, which I watched in its entirety, specifically highlighted the entrepreneurial culture and mindset (in addition to world class science) that the Technion will bring to the table above and beyond the traditional graduate level sciences provided by Cornell. I shouldn't really have to list the accomplishments of the Technion in this forum. Its faculty and alumni have had a hand in thousands of patents, hundreds of companies listed on American stock exchanges (not to mention Israeli or European) an outsized influence on virtually every technology we use today, have attracted R&D centers for many global technology leaders and, oh ya, a number of Nobel prizes. This is actually a Very Big Deal (TM) for New York City, Cornell, The Technion and Israel.