Academic and Private-Sector Consortium Will Create the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress in Downtown Brooklyn
Center Is the Next Step in the City’s Applied Sciences NYC Initiative; New Research and Technologies Developed at Center Expected to Generate $5.5 Billion in Overall Economic Impact and 7,700 Jobs over the Next Three Decades
Bloomberg Administration Has Made $300 Million in Capital Investments in Downtown Brooklyn
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York University President John Sexton, Polytechnic Institute of New York University President Jerry M. Hultin and MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota today announced an historic agreement among the City, MTA, and a consortium of world-class academic institutions and private technology companies that will lead to the creation of the NYU Center For Urban Science and Progress, to be located in Downtown Brooklyn. The announcement is the next milestone in the City’s groundbreaking Applied Sciences NYC initiative, which seeks to increase New York City’s capacity for applied sciences and dramatically transform the City’s economy.
The Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) will be a partnership of top institutions from around the globe, led by NYU and NYU-Poly, and will focus on research and development of technology to address the critical challenges facing cities, including infrastructure, tech integration, energy efficiency, transportation congestion, public safety and public health. The consortium will also include other highly respected academic institutions, such as City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto, University of Warwick, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, as well as two leading companies IBM and Cisco, and will grant academic degrees in engineering and sciences.
NYU named Steven Koonin – a theoretical physicist who has served as Undersecretary of Energy for Science and as Provost of the California Institute of Technology – as CUSP’s inaugural director. The Mayor will make the announcement at NYU-Poly in Downtown Brooklyn and will also be joined by MTA New York City Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel, Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick Nigel Thrift, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs Stan Litow, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Senator Dan Squadron, Council Member Steve Levin, Council Member Letitia James, Assembly Member Joan Millman, Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries, Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Fred Wilson, Chair of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Alan Fishman, and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Tucker Reed.
“Over the next five years, 370 Jay Street will be transformed into a cutting-edge center for research and science that will give another huge boost to our city’s economy,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Our Administration has long seen the promise of Downtown Brooklyn, and we’ve made the investments needed to transform it into a thriving center for business. With the addition of this new campus, Brooklyn will be one of the most dynamic environments for entrepreneurs anywhere in the country.”
“Being ‘in and of the City’ is part of NYU’s DNA; at no point has that been truer than today,” NYU President Sexton said. “New York itself has always been part of the educational experience at NYU; with CUSP, New York will also be a living laboratory, a source of research, a test-bed for new ideas, and the economic beneficiary of our researchers’ discoveries. CUSP has drawn together an exceptional group of educational and industrial partners to develop technologies to address an increasingly urbanized world. Attracting partners of such caliber is a validation not only of CUSP’s core idea, but also of the Mayor’s vision to make New York a capital of science and technology. This is a great and proud day for New York and for NYU.”
“For many years, 370 Jay Street served as the headquarters of the NYC Transit Authority,” said MTA Chairman Lhota. “Everyone at the MTA is proud that the building will be repurposed as New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress – a new business and science incubator in downtown Brooklyn.”
The NYU proposal was selected through this highly competitive process due to its bold vision to provide solutions for the world’s growing cities in the 21st century. CUSP will establish itself as a world leader in this important field of study, and will complement the City’s many other leading institutions, including the previous Applied Sciences NYC selection of the partnership between Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which will build a campus on Roosevelt Island. Collectively, these institutions along with other potential winners will further strengthen New York City’s global competiveness – including its growing technology sector – and ensure that the City establishes itself as a global hub of science, research, innovation and world-class urban solutions for the future.
As part of the agreement with the City, NYU has identified 370 Jay Street, a 460,000-square-foot City-owned office building in downtown Brooklyn that is currently partially occupied by the MTA and NYPD, as its preferred location for CUSP. After undertaking a six-month due diligence process to confirm the costs associated with renovation work and the timing of relocation of MTA and NYPD operations, NYU would begin a project to transform the currently underutilized commercial building, which has been predominantly vacant for more than a decade. The redevelopment would result in a leading, state-of-the-art academic center and economic engine that will benefit Downtown Brooklyn and the entire City for generations, with a projected completion date of 2017. CUSP will immediately begin operations by leasing and renovating 60,000 square feet in Downtown Brooklyn for Phase 1 of its program, which will accept its first class in September of 2013. This agreement is contingent on approval from the MTA board, which is scheduled to consider it Wednesday.
Approximately 150,000 square feet of the 370 Jay space will be designed for classrooms, offices and laboratory space, with an additional 40,000 square feet programmed for the creation of an incubator for businesses spun off by CUSP or CUSP-related research. The remaining building space may be used by NYU for the future expansion of CUSP, other academic uses or for commercial tenants who are seeking to locate near CUSP. If, after the six-month diligence period, NYU determines that redeveloping the 370 Jay Street site is not feasible, it will establish full operations of CUSP in alternate space in Downtown Brooklyn.
In order to offset a portion of the costs and to facilitate this significant private investment in Downtown Brooklyn, the City has allocated up to $15 million in benefits to NYU, which will include a combination of public funding sources and abatements of amounts otherwise payable, with the precise sources to be determined once a final location selection occurs. To facilitate Phase 1 commencement, $3.75 million of these benefits will be available to NYU.
NYU will begin the project and necessary due diligence immediately, including the required leasing of Downtown Brooklyn space for Phase 1 operations in time for classes to begin September 2013. Assuming a successful diligence period, the MTA and NYPD will begin relocating their operations and equipment from the 370 Jay Street in the fall of 2012. NYU will be responsible for the $50 million cost associated with the relocation of the MTA equipment and the up to $10 million cost associated with the relocation of the NYPD equipment. NYU would begin the first phase of their construction work on the 370 Jay Street building in the fall of 2014. The MTA would be expected to fully complete relocation in the spring of 2016 and NYU would be expected to complete the renovation of the building in the summer of 2017 for the first NYU CUSP class at Jay Street to begin by September of 2017.
In addition, there will be a Memorandum of Understanding between CUSP and the City that will establish the concept of New York as a “living laboratory” by facilitating CUSP’s work with City agencies to identify targets for research, to collect data, and develop technologies and solutions to real world urban challenges.
According to a new economic impact analysis conducted by the Economic Development Corporation, CUSP will generate more than $5.5 billion (nominal) in overall economic activity over the course of the next three decades as well as $597 million in total tax revenue. The campus alone will help create up to 2,200 construction jobs and up to 900 permanent jobs. More importantly, the campus is expected to generate nearly 200 spin-off companies over this time period – projected to create up to an additional 4,600 permanent jobs.
Upon full build out of the program in Downtown Brooklyn, it is projected that approximately 530 graduate and doctoral students will attend CUSP, including approximately 430 Masters candidates and 100 PhD candidates. NYU has projected that 25 percent of doctoral students will spend all years of their study at CUSP; the remaining 75 percent will spend the first two to three years of their doctoral study at a partner university and the final two to three years of their doctoral study at CUSP. There will be 50 full-time faculty and researchers at CUSP comprised of tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, contract faculty, research scientists, and senior researchers from industry. Between 40 and 60 percent of these individuals will be tenured and tenure-track. There will also be approximately 30 post-doctoral researchers.
Each of the academic partners of NYU and NYU-Poly – City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto, University of Warwick, and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay – are known for their strong applied science and engineering programs, and each has a solid track record of research commercialization, as well as industry collaborations and partnerships. CUSP's private industry partners include two Lead Founding Partners – technology giants IBM and Cisco – who each will provide $1 million a year in financial and in-kind support. There are also four Founding Corporate Partners – ConEdison, National Grid, Siemens, Xerox – who will provide $500,000 a year in financial and in-kind support to CUSP, and three Founding Consulting Partners – AECOM, Arup, and IDEO -who will provide up to $150,000 per year of consulting services at cost. CUSP will continue to seek to additional private partners as it begins operations.
In line with the City’s focus on research and academic programs that ultimately lead to commercialization, NYU will set aside space for a business incubator at CUSP. NYU has also committed that startups joining incubators at CUSP will be required to maintain a significant operational presence in City for at least five years. These startups will also be required to submit annual Impact Reports certifying the company’s number of jobs, projected job growth, annual revenues and new products or services. CUSP will immediately have access to the existing NYU Tech Transfer Office, which serves all of NYU, as well as access to the tech transfer offices of CUSP’s Member Institutions. As part of Phase 2 of the project, in addition to continued access to the tech transfer offices of NYU and Member Institutions, CUSP will have its own tech transfer director and supporting staff. Students, faculty and alumni will also eligible to apply for startup funding from NYU's Innovation Fund. The Fund has a goal of raising $20 million through philanthropy by fiscal 2018.
Concentrating on the focus of community involvement and to provide opportunities for the next wave of talented students, local middle and high school students will have opportunities to work in CUSP labs as interns or in summer jobs. The i2e (Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Learning Center will encourage and support high school student participation in City, State and regional competition, establish a summer program for high school students and train public school teachers; CUSP will look to partner with a public school whose course of study focuses on the urban built environment.
CUSP will be a transformative project in Downtown Brooklyn that will anchor the next phase of economic development initiatives in the area, including the attraction of new commercial, tech and retail tenants. In 2004, the Bloomberg Administration spearheaded a comprehensive plan for Downtown Brooklyn that combined zoning changes as well as strategic infrastructure investments in order to create a dynamic area with increased job opportunities, desirable commercial space, new housing, retail, open space and improved transit connections. Since that time, the City has made more than $300 million in capital investments in Downtown Brooklyn and as a result, Downtown Brooklyn’s population has grown by 30 percent in the past 10 years, with more than 150,000 shoppers now visiting the area each business day. 57,000 post-secondary students currently attend academic institutions in Downtown Brooklyn. In addition, City-sponsored development projects such as City Point and the 210 Joralemon Municipal Building are bringing new, first-class retail and commercial space to Fulton Mall and Court Street. The City’s investment of $100 million in new cultural projects in the BAM cultural district is also helping to create a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood. Nearly a quarter-million square feet of new retail space is soon going up at the nearby Atlantic Yards development, the largest private sector project in the borough’s history. CUSP solidifies Downtown Brooklyn’s arrival as a world-class academic community and, coupled with recent investments in infrastructure and real estate, has the potential to attract hundreds of tech firms to the area.
“Under Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership, Downtown Brooklyn has become one of the fastest-growing, most dynamic neighborhoods in New York City, and with the addition of NYU CUSP, we are confident that Downtown Brooklyn is now poised to become a global hub for innovation,” Deputy Mayor Steel said. “NYU’s commitment to and investment in Downtown Brooklyn is a strong sign of confidence in the future of the neighborhood and the City at large.”
“We are honored to be part of this opportunity to deliver on the Mayor’s Applied Sciences NYC initiative and welcome CUSP as our partner to Innovation Square, in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn,” said NYU-Poly President Hultin. “As NYU’s affiliated institute for engineering and technology, NYU-Poly’s faculty and students are deeply committed to meeting society’s needs -- and the future of cities is one of the most significant challenges we must address. America’s cities need new, intelligent infrastructure, and around the world, over one billion people will move to cities in the next 30 years. The market for intelligent city systems alone is estimated to be $160 trillion in that same period. CUSP embodies NYU and NYU-Poly’s commitment to invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship (i2e), and will enable us to further the economic diversity and resiliency of this great city.”
“This exciting new partnership is another important piece of the Bloomberg Administration’s efforts to create a stronger and more diversified economy for the future,” said Economic Development Corporation President Pinsky. “Not only will it lead to research and technologies that will greatly benefit New York and other cities, it will also generate billions of dollars in economic impact for our City and create thousands of critical jobs over the next several decades, ensuring that we continue to grow as a global leader in innovation. We congratulate NYU and their partners on this significant investment in the City's future and look forward to more good news in the coming weeks.”
“This exciting new applied sciences school will make sure that not just trees, but ideas, innovations and exciting new job-creating tech firms will grow in Brooklyn,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer. “Adding world class engineering and applied science schools will only strengthen the city’s position as a leader in high-tech, and a premier destination for the talented and ambitious young people looking to make their mark in the new global economy. As I have always said, we shouldn't stop at one engineering school and New York’s decision to move forward with two schools represents exactly the sort of bold thinking that has always propelled our City forward into the future. Mayor Bloomberg deserves great credit for leading the charge, as does NYU and the MTA for forging this partnership, and I will do everything in my power to assist him in any way I can.”
"This is another great step for New York City’s future,” said Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand. “I commend Mayor Bloomberg, MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota, and the leadership of NYU and NYU-Polytechnic for their vision and leadership in turning this great idea into a reality. A new applied science center in downtown Brooklyn will create a new hub for science and technology connected to Brooklyn’s flourishing Digital District, spurring job growth and attracting the next generation of talent – using facilities we already have.”
“I am thrilled about today’s announcement and confident that the Center’s unique collaborative model will lead to great innovation in both the classroom and marketplace that will help NYC continue to diversify its economy beyond our financial sector,” said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “I am especially excited that this is all taking place in downtown Brooklyn, one point of the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, where the City Council has been working foster and expand the area’s growing tech industry. I want to thank the Bloomberg Administration, NYU, the MTA, and NYU-Poly for their continued dedication to putting more New Yorkers back to work.”
“370 Jay Street—an eyesore in Downtown Brooklyn for far too long—will be the ideal site for an applied science campus, and I commend NYU-Poly for its ongoing commitment to Brooklyn with this exciting new venture as well as its leased space for labs, classrooms and faculty offices at 2 MetroTech Center,” said Borough President Markowitz. “This world-class campus will create thousands of jobs for generations to come and give Brooklyn yet another name: College Town, USA! Downtown Brooklyn already has more college students than Cambridge,Massachusetts, and this will only add to Brooklyn’s growing reputation as a center for higher education and innovation. And let’s not stop here—NYU’s expansion plans could include a future stand-alone campus in Brooklyn. Bravo to Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, EDC President Seth Pinsky, NYU President and Brooklyn’s own John Sexton, NYU-Poly President Jerry Hultin, MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph Lhota, Forest City Ratner and Mary Anne Gilmartin, and all of the elected officials who joined me in pitching 370 Jay Street as the perfect location for the Center for Urban Science and Progress.”
“An applied sciences campus at 370 Jay Street is nothing short of a game-changer for Downtown Brooklyn and all of New York City. For years we’ve pushed to put 370 Jay to use, and, since last fall, we’ve urged an agreement that would allow NYU and NYU-Poly to build a Center for Urban Science and Progress in the space,” said State Senator Daniel Squadron. “Now, by bringing a world-class institute to Brooklyn, we'll be able to bring Brooklyn's dynamic talent and vibrant tech scene to the world. And by finally putting the nearly-abandoned 370 Jay to use, Downtown Brooklyn will take another huge step forward. Thank you to the MTA, the City, and NYU for reaching an agreement that has answered the community's calls and will allow New York to continue attracting the top talent that has made us a center of innovation.”
“This is a great day for Brooklyn. For many years Borough President Marty Markowitz and I have advocated along with the residents of downtown Brooklyn to have 370 Jay Street redeveloped to be in line with the renaissance of Downtown Brooklyn,” said Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman. “The Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) will be at the epicenter of Brooklyn’s new and thriving Tech Triangle which includes DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The partnership of institutions lead by NYU-Poly will grant academic degrees in engineering and sciences, and I believe that this world-class applied sciences institute will cement the future of Brooklyn’s Tech Triangle and increase the amount of tech companies that call Brooklyn home. “
“I am so thrilled that NYU and EDC were able to reach an agreement to open the CUSP campus at 370 Jay Street,” said Council Member Stephen Levin. “The Brooklyn Tech Triangle is quickly becoming the envy of cities from here to Silicon Valley. With DUMBO on one corner and the Brooklyn Navy Yard on another, NYU CUSP joins NYU Poly and MetroTech Center to solidify the Downtown Brooklyn corner of the Tech Triangle.”
“This is a major win for New York City and especially for Downtown Brooklyn,” said Council Member Letitia James. “This center will allow the next generation of great minds to solve the problems cities like New York are currently facing, while at the same time creating important jobs and economic activity for our community. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg, President Sexton and all those involved for their commitment to the future of Downtown Brooklyn.”
“The transformation of 370 Jay Street into NYU's applied science and engineering institute is a game changer for Downtown Brooklyn,” said Alan Fishman, chair of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “This takes the district's resurgence to a new level and will position Downtown Brooklyn to rival any college town in the country. Mayor Bloomberg once again has delivered for Downtown Brooklyn, and I thank his Administration on behalf of everyone working and living here. Every elected official in this district has gone to bat on reactivating this building and we thank them also.”
“We are excited to learn that NYU and its partners will be joining the effort to realize Mayor Bloomberg’s vision to place New York City at the vanguard of innovation,” said Cornell University President David Skorton. “We will all benefit from the wisdom, creativity and engagement of all our colleagues across the City’s rich higher education community.”
“The business community is thrilled that NYU-Poly will develop a cutting edge, graduate engineering program focused on the application of technology and science to address changing needs and opportunities of urban centers,” said Kathryn Wylde, President & CEO, Partnership for New York City. “This is a huge contribution to New York City and will help to insure our continued pre-eminence as a global center of innovation.”
“The excitement around the growth of the greater Downtown Brooklyn technology sector is palpable,” said Tucker Reed, President of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. “From DUMBO to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, innovative firms are transforming our local economy. CUSP is a major anchor to build the Brooklyn Technology Triangle around. The dual benefit of reactivating 370 Jay Street with a world-class institution of 21st century education, signals Downtown Brooklyn’s emergence as the New York's center for innovation and entrepreneurship.”
“I am honored to join Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Steel, Seth Pinsky, and so many leaders of business, education and technology for this exciting announcement," said Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne (NYU BA, '05). “Today’s milestone yet again illustrates Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to innovation and technology-driven economic development. It is an important step forward in the Mayor's digital roadmap for New York City, and helps to further fortify and grow the City’s technology ecosystem.”
“Warwick is a globally connected University and we are delighted to have the opportunity to work in and with New York, one of the world’s most exciting and vibrant cities,” Professor Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick. “The aims of the Center for Urban Sciences and Progress are closely aligned with many of Warwick’s own research priorities of manufacturing, energy, food security and healthcare. These themes all have significant impacts on the lives of 21st Century city dwellers. Warwick already has significant experience in applying those research themes to the needs of cities and it is generating significant interest in that work from a range of policy-makers and city leaders. The University of Warwick also brings to this collaboration its long history of close working partnerships with businesses, which range from multinationals like Jaguar Land Rover through to small and medium-sized firms, all of which benefit from access to the University's technology and know-how and apply that knowledge to create new jobs and expand their businesses.”
“A new institution with great promise needs a great purpose,” said John Chambers, Chairman of Cisco. “There are cities all over the world looking for a new approach that brings to bear the huge potential of technology to make cities more livable, affordable, sustainable and economically vibrant. CUSP’s open innovation approach of using the city as a living laboratory offers great promise to build on NYU’s unique relationship with New York in a way that also brings to life a new vision for the role of universities in society. For that reason city leaders everywhere are looking to NYC, to NYU, and CUSP's superb network of partners to break new ground. Cisco is honored to be one of CUSP's two lead corporate partners.”
“As long-time partners of NYU-Poly, we congratulate them on the selection of the CUSP program for the applied science initiative,” said National Grid President Ken Daly (NYU MS’99). “This is a perfect fit from both a local and a global perspective. Here in Brooklyn, National Grid and NYU-Poly are MetroTech neighbors and this will help us further advance Brooklyn's leadership position in energy, academics, and innovation. And globally, this enables us to leverage National Grid's energy business in the United Kingdom and share energy best practices in both countries.”
“Con Edison is pleased to be a sponsor of the future Center for Urban Science and Progress,” said Kevin Burke, Chairman and CEO of ConEdison. “This is a unique and powerful public-private partnership that connects advanced education and research and development in areas that are priorities to Con Edison, including energy efficiency and infrastructure related technology, such as smart grid.”
“The University of Toronto has a long and deep history of research into urban challenges and opportunities,” said David Naylor, President of the University of Toronto. “We are thrilled to be part of CUSP’s vital task of building successful cities that are innovative, efficient, and sustainable.”
“CUSP is exciting on so many levels,” said Fred Wilson, Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures. “I can’t imagine a better place to study and do cutting edge research into Urban Science than downtown Brooklyn which embodies so many of the challenges and opportunities of the urban experience. But more than anything, I think CUSP will be a magnet to bring more entrepreneurship and startups into Brooklyn, which is already emerging as a world class startup hub in its own right.”
“This announcement positions New York City to become a global innovation center for evolving smarter cities,” said Tom Eich, Partner at IDEO and Head of the New York Studio. “We at IDEO, both here in our New York Studio as well as across our global network, are excited to use human-centered design to help CUSP create a vision for configuring the future of our urban landscape.”
“The Center for Urban Science and Progress will foster collaborative innovation through joint industry and academic research,” R.G. Conlee, Chief Innovation Officer for Xerox ITO/BPO Services. “The center's vision to observe, analyze and create model cities to provide better outcomes for their citizens and to grow the knowledge and skills required to address urban issues is commendable and aligns with Xerox’s services innovation and commercialization strategy.”
“As the builder and operator of the region's key transportation facilities, we are pleased to see the development of this academic center to focus on the real-world challenges we face each day,” said Pat Foye, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “We need new, out-of-the-box ideas to help provide solutions to traditional urban city problems, such as traffic congestion, and this center provides the appropriate forum to foster those discussions.”
“Siemens Corporation congratulates NYU-Poly on its selection of the Center for Science and Progress for New York City’s applied science initiative,” said Michael Kruklinski, Head of Region Americas Siemens Real Estate. “CUSP will be at the forefront of the study of urban science and will contribute to the global knowledge base on issues critical to how cities operate in the 21st Century. Siemens has a long history of engineering urban solutions and we look forward to working with CUSP and its private and public sector partners to make cities better places to live and work.”
“This unique partnership of leading universities will focus outstanding educators equipped with modern technology to develop cutting-edge research and practical solutions to issues facing urban environments in the 21st Century,” said Chancellor Matthew Goldstein of the City University of New York. “We are very pleased that CUNY faculty will contribute their talents and expertise to this important initiative.”
“As Senior Advisor and Head of Corporate Portfolio Ventures at the global private equity firm Coller Capital – and as a graduate of both NYU and Poly – I applaud the Mayor’s selection of NYU-Poly and its research and corporate partners to create the Center for Urban Science and Progress,” said Shelley A. Harrison, NYU Applied Scientist and Entrepreneur-in-Residence. “I am excited to assist CUSP and all its partners in the commercialization of emerging urban technologies and solutions with the creation of new companies and jobs for the New York region.”
“Carnegie Mellon is pleased to bring its pioneering work in intelligent transportation systems and infrastructure research to this partnership,” said Carnegie Mellon University President Jared L. Cohon. “Carnegie Mellon is using state-of-the-art computing and communication technologies to advance the safety and efficiency of transportation systems, as well as a number of other urban issues. We applaud Mayor Bloomberg’s continued efforts and we congratulate all the partners who worked to get this done.”
“CUSP is a powerful public-private consortium that will help bolster NYC's transformation as the world center for urban innovation and economic development,” said Michael O’Boyle, IBM Managing Director for NY Public Sector. “IBM is excited about supporting and participating in CUSP to make it a resounding success.”
“We are delighted to participate in this unique combination of New York City, academia and government that will enable New York City to research and develop Smarter Cities,” said Katharine Frase, the VP of Industry Research at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center.
“The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay welcomes the inception of the Center for Urban Science and Progress with the support of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the appointment of Prof. Steve Koonin as its first Director,” said Devang Khakhar, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. “The Center presents a great new opportunity to address the challenges of megacities by the generation of new knowledge using New York City as its laboratory and by imparting education with a focus on the planning, building and managing megacities. The work of the Center will benefit New York City directly and will provide a template to address many issues of megacities. We look forward to contributing actively as a consortium member of the Center through the participation of our faculty who specialize in the fields of engineering and science related to urban studies. The issues of our home city, Mumbai, will provide unique new insights and will be a source of ideas for the work of the Center.”
“At Etsy, we’re excited about the Center for Urban Science & Progress in Downtown Brooklyn, and we would like to thank Mayor Bloomberg, the city, NYU-Poly and CUSP partner institutions for their commitment to support the continued growth of the technology industry in New York City by bringing a center of world-class talent and education right to our backyard,” said Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson. “Etsy has doubled its staff in the past 18 months, we continue to grow rapidly and are always on the lookout for the kind of great talent this center will bring to Brooklyn.”
“We look forward to contributing to the success of what is arguably the most significant educational initiative in the region,” said Mahadev Raman, Regional Director of the Americas for ARUP.
Applied Sciences NYC was designed to capitalize on the considerable growth presently occurring within the science, technology and research fields in New York, and builds on the Bloomberg Administration’s record of creating a better diversified and more competitive economy for the future. In the technology sector, employment in New York grew by nearly 30 percent between 2005 and 2010, with total employment now at nearly 120,000. Also, last year New York surpassed Boston to become the number two recipient of venture capital funding for technology companies, while in the third quarter of 2011, New York surpassed Boston in venture capital funding across all categories.
In July of 2011, NYCEDC issued the RFP seeking a university, institution or consortium to develop and operate a new or expanded campus in the City in exchange for City capital, access to City-owned land – at the Navy Hospital Campus at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Goldwater Hospital Campus on Roosevelt Island, or on Governors Island – and the full support and partnership of the Bloomberg Administration. In October, the City received 7 responses from 17 world-class institutions from around the globe. In December of 2011, the City created its first partnership, providing a consortium led by Cornell and the Technion with land on Roosevelt Island and $100 million in City capital to build a $2 billion, 2 million square foot tech campus. When completed, the new Roosevelt Island campus will nearly double the number of full-time, graduate engineering students enrolled in leading New York City Master’s and Ph.D. programs, with the new NYU CUSP project set to further increase the rapid influx of talent to New York City. Negotiations continue with other institutions who submitted Applied Sciences NYC proposals, including Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon University.
About NYCEDC
New York City Economic Development Corporation is the City's primary vehicle for promoting economic growth in each of the five boroughs. NYCEDC's mission is to stimulate growth through expansion and redevelopment programs that encourage investment, generate prosperity and strengthen the City's competitive position. NYCEDC serves as an advocate to the business community by building relationships with companies that allow them to take advantage of New York City's many opportunities. Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or visit our blog to learn more about NYCEDC projects and initiatives.
