Members of the Roosevelt Island community test out the Communal eXtended-Reality system created by Cornell Tech researchers while riding the island’s public bus
By Sarah Marquart
An iconic red shuttle bus ferries commuters and visitors along the winding streets of New York City’s Roosevelt Island. But this isn’t a typical sightseeing tour.
Passengers all don virtual reality headsets for an eye-opening experience – a cutting-edge blend of the physical and digital worlds, designed to engage communities in new ways through the Communal eXtended-Reality (CXR) system.
Passengers were transported into a realm where virtual environments seamlessly merged with their real surroundings. Guided by audio narration, they encountered nine striking scenes depicting the escalating impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on rising floodwaters.
“In the fragmented media landscape we live in, and with differences in regional issues, the shared physical experience is a very unique way to bring people together,” said Wendy Ju, associate professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, whose research group created CXR.
Ju and her team presented the CXR system at the July 2024 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, where it earned an honorable mention. Co-authors included Cornell Tech postdoctoral associate and project lead Sharon Yavo-Ayalon, along with doctoral students Adam Yuzhen Zhang and Fanju Bu; Cooper Murr ’24; and researchers from New York University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Projections suggest that a 100-year flood could submerge most of Roosevelt Island. Despite these alarming forecasts, research indicates that such a catastrophe doesn’t feel real to many in the public.
This disconnect between knowledge and urgency is precisely what the CXR system aims to address. The technology – which synchronizes real-world movement with virtual overlays – provides a fully immersive, shared extended reality (XR) experience designed to foster a unified understanding of pressing challenges, such as climate change.
This integration allows participants to experience a shared reality while physically traveling through their environment, making the experience both communal and deeply rooted in place.
The deployment of the CXR system on Roosevelt Island proved to be more than just an educational exercise. After seeing “worst-case” flooding scenarios, scenes of Superstorm Sandy, and future sea-level rise forecasts, participants reported strong emotional responses, with many expressing increased concern about climate change and a desire to take action. One participant was even moved to tears upon seeing a simulated flood reach the steps of her school.
These types of reactions were not surprising, Ju said.
“In the planning and development phase, we were warned about scaring people about flooding and climate change because people can become hopeless,” she said. “We tried very hard to employ humor and emphasize possible interventions to mitigate this. We did find that people got worried, but we also noted that the worry seemed to galvanize people to act, which is a good outcome from our perspective.”
Potential applications of the CXR system extend far beyond its initial deployment, Ju said. CXR can play a crucial role in urban planning by engaging communities in discussions about new developments. By providing a clear and immersive presentation of proposed changes, it helps to reduce misunderstandings and conflicts, fostering a more informed and collaborative approach to future planning.
“Immersive technologies can bring future challenges into focus,” Ju said, “which is important for generating the social will to address and prepare for things to come.”
The research received funding from Tata Consultancy Services and was supported by Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.
Sarah Marquart is a freelance writer for Cornell Tech.
At the 2024 Startup Awards, the four companies that won each received awards worth $100,000. The award includes $80,000 in pre-seed funding as well as co-working space in the Tata Innovation Center and mentorship by the Cornell Tech team valued together at $20,000. A fifth runner-up received working space and mentorship. Pictured above: Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech Josh Hartmann (middle, back row), with the startup companies Cipher, Compose AI, Mindsight, RapidReview, and MercuryVote.
Cornell Tech awarded four student startup companies with investments worth $100,000 each in its eleventh annual Startup Awards competition. The award includes $80,000 in pre-seed funding as well as co-working space in the Tata Innovation Center and mentorship by the Cornell Tech team valued together at $20,000. The awards were announced at Cornell Tech’s Open Studio, the campus’ end-of-year celebration of startups and presentation of cutting-edge research, projects, and companies founded at Cornell Tech.
A panel of tech industry leaders and executives, along with members of the Cornell and Cornell Tech faculty and staff, selected the winning student teams. This year’s panel of judges included GregMorrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech; Fernando Gómez-Baquero, Director of Runway and Spinouts at Cornell Tech; Josh Hartmann, Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech; Jenny Fielding, Co-Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech; Alberto Escarlate, Co-Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech; Sam Dix, Co-Head of Startup Studio at Cornell Tech; Amanda Eilian, Partner of _able Partners; Tanzeem Choudhury, Roger and Joelle Burnell Professor in Integrated Health and Technology at Cornell Tech; Howard Morgan, Chairman of B Capital Group; and Momo Bi, Partner of Watershed Ventures.
“This year’s cohort of Startup Award finalists impressed me with their ingenuity and problem-solving,” said Josh Hartmann, Chief Practice Officer of Cornell Tech. “By seeing real-world issues, addressing their roots, and tackling them head-on, these students have come up with innovative solutions that build upon the skills they gained through their Cornell Tech education and Studio experience. I am proud of all they have accomplished and am excited to see where the future takes them.”
The 2024 Startup Award Winners are:
Cipher, an end-to-end marketplace that connects businesses to music professionals, tracks negotiations, and automates payments and licensing agreements. “By facilitating music licensing deals, Cipher will unlock the true value of music,” the founders said.
Compose AI, a marketplace to scale product placement ads using generative AI. According to the company, the product placement industry is highly manual with deal-times that take months. “We automatically insert brand assets in influencer videos, reducing deal-times to days,” the founders said.
Mindsight, which offers an end-to-end care management platform that leverages AI to deliver personalized outpatient mental health treatment recommendations.
RapidReview, which enables researchers to navigate through thousands of papers by converting documents into structured tables.
MercuryVote, which enables shareholders to sell their votes so that changemakers can mobilize previously unused proxy votes, was a runner-up. Although MercuryVote will not receive the Cornell Tech cash award, the team will receive office space and mentorship through Cornell Tech’s Runway Program.
Since the inception of Startup Studio, 11 alumni companies have been acquired: Enroute, acquired by Ichilov Tech; LitOS, acquired by Navana Tech India; Pilota, acquired by Hopper; Otari, acquired by Peloton; Datalogue, acquired by Nike; Auggi, acquired by Seed Health; Uru, acquired by Adobe; Trigger Finance, acquired by Circle; Gitlinks, acquired by Infor; Bowtie, acquired by MINDBODY; and ThreadLearning, acquired by CentralReach. In total, startups that have been founded and spun out on campus — including Startup Studio and the Runway Startup Postdocs at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute — have raised more than $330 million in funding and employ nearly 500 people in NYC.
This year’s Open Studio also included a presentation of select BigCo Studio teams, which showcased the challenges they worked on with Studio’s partner organizations throughout the semester. In BigCo Studio, students learn how to navigate working within big companies (BigCos) by being matched with a C-suite or VP advisor from a real BigCo to research, prototype, and present a new product that helps the company achieve its mission. This year’s BigCo Studio partner organizations included Capital One, Google, JP Morgan Chase, Merck, Microsoft, Verizon, and Wayfair.
This year, the Startup Studio program was led by Jenny Fielding, Sam Dix, and Alberto Escarlate, along with Cornell Tech’s Chief Practice Officer Josh Hartmann and Studio Directors Naomi Cervantes and Tyler Rhorick. The Startup Awards are a capstone of the Studio curriculum, a critical component of the master’s experience at Cornell Tech, which brings together multi-disciplinary teams to solve real-world problems. In their final semester, students can choose to form teams and enroll in Startup Studio, where they combine their diverse program disciplines — computer science, operations research and information engineering, business, health tech, urban tech, connective media, electrical and computer engineering, and law — to develop ideas and prototypes for their startup in an academic setting.
Students who don’t enroll in Startup Studio could choose to take the BigCo Studio or PiTech Studio tracks. In PiTech Studio, or Public Interest Tech Studio, students focus specifically on product development and business models that accelerate positive change in public, non-profit, for-profit, and hybrid sectors.
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About Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students, and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.
Charles F. “Chuck” Feeney ’56, founding chairman of The Atlantic Philanthropies, quietly devoted his fortune to worldwide causes, including nearly $1 billion through his foundation to Cornell.
Charles F. “Chuck” Feeney ’56, founding chairman of The Atlantic Philanthropies, quietly devoted his fortune to worldwide causes, including nearly $1 billion through his foundation to Cornell.
Charles F. “Chuck” Feeney ’56, founding chairman of The Atlantic Philanthropies and Cornell University’s most generous donor, died Oct. 9 in San Francisco. He was 92.
Feeney, who quietly devoted his fortune to worldwide causes for decades, invested nearly $1 billion in Cornell through the foundation since 1982. The late President Frank H.T. Rhodes referred to him as Cornell’s “third founder” – behind only Ezra Cornell and the university’s first president, Andrew Dickson White, in the magnitude of his influence and impact.
From left, Chuck Feeney ’56, then-Cornell President Frank H.T. Rhodes and Ed Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick in Ireland, in 1987.
However, for more than two decades, Feeney’s giving through The Atlantic Philanthropies was completely anonymous – neither his name nor Atlantic’s appeared on any university building, professorship or program. Even after he was thrust into the limelight when his association with Atlantic became public, he resisted any memorials to his giving, preferring instead for the focus to be on the beneficiaries of his support.
In 2021, Cornell renamed East Avenue on the Ithaca campus “Feeney Way” in honor of his 90th birthday, to recognize his impact on the university, and as an inspiration to future generations of Cornellians. A second “Feeney Way” will be named on a central thoroughfare on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City, Cornell announced earlier this year.
“Chuck Feeney, in his life and in his lasting legacy, set an inspirational standard of what it means to be a Cornellian,” said President Martha E. Pollack. “His life’s mission of consequential philanthropy, the breathtaking impact of his giving to his alma mater, and the way his quiet example has motivated so many others, has been immeasurably transformative to Cornell and to Cornellians.
“I am heartened by the fact that Chuck – who famously never sought recognition for his generosity – had recently granted Cornell’s wish to express our appreciation for him and celebrate his impact and vision by naming main thoroughfares on our Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses in his honor,” Pollack said.
Feeney’s legacy
The story of Feeney’s legacy and The Atlantic Philanthropies’ impact on Cornell is vast and inspiring. Among the highlights of the foundation’s giving are:
the record-setting $350 million grant, initially made anonymously in 2011, that funded much of the construction and program development for the first phase of the Cornell Tech campus, while also creating a generous permanent endowment, and was transformational for both Cornell and New York City;
the creation of, and endowment gifts for, the Cornell Tradition, which awards fellowships to outstanding Cornell undergraduates who demonstrate a commitment to scholarship, work and service; and
support that touched nearly every corner of Cornell, transforming undergraduate residential life; increasing access to financial aid; and revitalizing the sciences, humanities and social sciences.
Beyond Cornell, Feeney and The Atlantic Philanthropies gave $7 billion over three decades, dramatically advancing global education, health, research and innovation, human rights and peacemaking efforts.
“Chuck was as passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of others as he was about being successful at business,” said Christopher G. Oechsli, president and CEO of Atlantic and longtime adviser to Feeney. “He cared more about being effective at what he did than about amassing wealth or collecting awards. In philanthropy, that meant being present and engaged in an unassuming manner with the people and their work who, with his support, could improve the lives of others in meaningful and lasting ways.”
“Chuck Feeney was a cherished Cornellian whose impact is immeasurable,” said Kraig Kayser, MBA ’84, chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees. “His philanthropic support across many campus priorities – including the founding gift for Cornell Tech – will be felt for generations. He traced his visionary commitment to ‘giving while living’ to Cornell’s ‘… any person … any study’ principles, and just as Cornell’s ethos was foundational to Chuck, he became foundational to Cornell. The entire community sends its condolences to his family, as he will be missed.”
Early years and The Atlantic Philanthropies
Charles Francis Feeney was born April 23, 1931, into a working-class, Irish-American immigrant family in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He enrolled in Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration – now the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration – in 1952 with support from the G.I. Bill. He was the first in his family to go to college.
His entrepreneurial drive was apparent immediately: He famously created a sandwich business at Cornell that became so profitable his freshman classmates dubbed him “the sandwich man.”
After graduation, Feeney traveled to Europe, enrolled in a graduate program in political science at the University Grenoble in France and started a summer camp for children of American military personnel.
Feeney, bottom right, in a 1956 photo of the Cornell Hotel Association.
In 1960, Feeney and fellow Hotelie Robert W. Miller ’55 co-founded Duty Free Shoppers – at first selling to sailors serving with the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic fleet, then at Honolulu International Airport, and subsequently expanding to airports in Europe, Hong Kong and beyond. Duty Free Shoppers soon became the largest seller of luxury goods in the world.
In 1984, Feeney secretly gave away nearly all his fortune by transferring the vast majority of his stake in Duty Free Shoppers (estimated at more than $500 million at the time) to create and establish The Atlantic Philanthropies, reducing his own wealth to less than $5 million.
In its early years, Atlantic directed much of its giving to higher education; it later refined its areas of focus, identifying four key priorities: aging; children and youth; population health; and reconciliation and human rights.
Feeney insisted on anonymity for the foundation’s donations and his involvement. According to his authorized biography, “The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune” (2007) by Conor O’Clery, this was partly due to modesty, and partly out of concern that giving publicly and generously to an organization might discourage others from giving to the same organization.
Atlantic eventually concentrated its grant-making in seven countries across the globe and targeted giving in particular sectors for each: the United States (higher education, health care reform, medical research and social justice); Bermuda (nonprofit organization support, philanthropy and social change); Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (peacemaking and higher education); South Africa (justice, health equity, human rights and social change); Vietnam (health care and higher education); and Australia (modern facilities for translational research and pharmaceuticals).
Based on his belief that people should use their wealth to better the world during their lifetimes, Feeney purposely limited the lifespan of The Atlantic Philanthropies so it would make a difference sooner rather than later. In 2002, he committed to spending down the foundation’s endowment completely and set 2016 as its final year of grant-making. He said he was very proud to accomplish this goal during his own lifetime.
Atlantic and Cornell
The Atlantic Philanthropies’ very first investment in Cornell, in 1982, was an anonymous grant of $7 million to establish The Cornell Tradition, an undergraduate fellowship program combining work, service and scholarship opportunities to instill a strong work ethic in civic-minded students. The program was envisioned as a contemporary expression of Ezra Cornell’s vision that all students who were willing to work hard, earn good grades and dedicate themselves to serving their communities would find a place at the university, regardless of their financial situation.
The foundation gave nearly $41 million to The Cornell Tradition over time, supporting more than 6,000 students and, through student loan relief, enabling many of them to pursue careers in public service.
Fittingly, The Atlantic Philanthropies’ final official grant as it wound down its operations in 2016 was another $7 million for The Cornell Tradition, creating core endowments for operations and for students with financial need who wish to pursue international service experiences. Both endowments were named for Rhodes to honor his long connection with The Atlantic Philanthropies, which was fostered and flourished during his presidency at Cornell and afterward, when he served on Atlantic’s board from 1995 to 2000 and as chairman from 2000-08.
Between those first and final grants to Cornell, The Atlantic Philanthropies nurtured a three-decade partnership with the university and its leaders, supporting and creating:
scholarship challenge campaigns to support access for all deserving students, allowing Cornell to maintain its need-blind admissions policy;
the construction of more than a dozen buildings, notably on North and West campuses, creating and transforming first-year student residential experiences and living-learning communities;
athletics endowments and facilities, including Bartels Hall and Cornell Outdoor Education;
Nolan Hotel School support, through contributions to the Robert A. and Jan M. Beck Center and the Center for Hospitality Research;
challenge grants to inspire alumni giving for university priorities;
the Presidential Research Scholars Program, which was later named for former President Hunter R. Rawlings III;
the acquisition and development of the Cornell Club property in New York City as a presence for the university and a gathering place for alumni and guests; and
the Martin Y. Tang Welcome Center on Beebe Lake – a building that Atlantic helped restore in the 1980s and renovate in 2018 as Cornell’s first standalone welcome center.
The Atlantic Philanthropies also supported challenge campaigns that boosted endowment for faculty positions, deanships, directorships and graduate fellowships; provided seed funds for top academic programs and initiatives; helped to create the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, the Center for the Study of Inequality, and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide; and established The Atlantic Philanthropies Archives, now housed at Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
From left, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page, then-Cornell President David Skorton, Feeney and Robert Harrison ’76, then-chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees, at a May 2012 press conference announcing that Cornell Tech would have its first physical space, free of charge, in a New York City building owned by Google.
Cornell Tech
The Atlantic Philanthropies’ largest single investment, and what has been described as the crowning achievement of its long collaboration with the university, came in the form of a $350 million grant in 2011 – the largest-ever grant to Cornell and one of the largest ever given in higher education – to build the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City.
The grant was a deciding factor in Cornell’s winning New York City’s competition to build a new graduate applied sciences and engineering campus in the city. It marked a historic and transformative moment for Cornell and was critical in allowing the university to begin all facets of the campus’s development, from the first construction phase to its faculty and programs. That early support served as the linchpin of what is now growing into a $2 billion plan for Cornell Tech and is reshaping the tech landscape in New York City by positioning the entire metro region as a global tech center.
Recognition and inspiration
Feeney, a member of what Rhodes often referred to as the “Super Class of 1956” for its record-breaking philanthropy and service, was long known for being shy and modest, flying coach, wearing $15 watches and sweaters with holes, and not owning a home or tuxedo.
It wasn’t until the 1997 sale of Duty Free Shoppers that Feeney became known as the philanthropist behind The Atlantic Philanthropies and its many billions of dollars in giving over the years, and for his tremendous impact on Cornell. He later authorized his biography to encourage others to follow his example.
In 2011, Feeney became a signatory of the Giving Pledge, created by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates with the aim of motivating the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving away the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice, preferably while the donors are still alive – the essence of Feeney’s philosophy.
The thoroughfare formerly known as East Avenue was renamed “Feeney Way” in 2021.
“Chuck has set an example,” Buffett said. “He is my hero and Bill Gates’ hero. He should be everybody’s hero.”
In 2015, Feeney was one of three Cornellians awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, given to families and individuals worldwide who have dedicated their private wealth to the public good.
In 2020, when the university announced that it would, with Feeney’s permission, rename East Avenue in his honor, he said he was humbled.
“Cornell’s culture of affording any person an opportunity for study in any area of interest informed my commitment to ‘give while living’ – to use wealth to create opportunities for others, especially for those who have not historically had those opportunities,” he said. “I hope Feeney Way will help awaken and nurture that spirit in those who walk Cornell’s paths.”
Feeney is survived by his wife, Helga; five children from his first marriage to Danielle Feeney of France: Juliette Feeney-Timsit ’84 of Paris; Caroleen Feeney of Los Angeles; Leslie Feeney Baily of London; Diane Feeney ’90 of London; and Patrick Feeney of Brussels; 16 grandchildren; and four nieces and nephews.
Memorial gifts may be made to a charitable organization of choice or The Cornell Tradition at Cornell University, 300 Kennedy Hall, Ithaca, N.Y.; Hear & Say, 29 Nathan Ave., Ashgrove Qld 4060, Australia; or The Atlantic Institute/Atlantic Fellows, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RG, United Kingdom.
Greg Morrisett has been appointed to a second term as the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech, Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 9.
The Cornell Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee voted Sept. 14 to approve a new five-year term, effective July 1, 2024. Morrisett’s tenure as dean began July 1, 2019. He is also a professor in the Department of Computer Science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
Greg Morrisett, dean of Computing and Information Science (CIS).
“Greg has been an inspirational leader in the establishment and growth of Cornell Tech, the Roosevelt Island Cornell campus and the New York City tech landscape,” Kotlikoff said. “I’m thrilled for him to continue in his role as dean: growing Cornell Tech programs, fostering intercampus collaborations, attracting outstanding students and faculty, leading exciting K-12 tech educational programs and driving innovation and startups in New York City.”
Cornell Tech launched in 2012, in temporary offices in Google’s New York City building, and moved to its permanent campus on Roosevelt Island in 2017. The campus is home to close to 50 tenure track and nontenured faculty members, approximately 400 master’s students across eight programs, and more than 100 doctoral students in five fields. Since its launch, Cornell Tech has graduated about 1,900 students.
As part of a land-grant institution, Cornell Tech has a deep responsibility to serve New Yorkers, Morrisett said. The land-grant mission is evident in the campus’s efforts to help diversify the tech ecosystem, educate students to design and build solutions that tackle real-world challenges, and develop deep connections in New York City’s tech industry, he said.
“I’m just super proud of how New York’s tech scene has exploded over the last decade, and I think we can take our fair share of credit for this,” Morrisett said.
Some key accomplishments during Morrisett’s first term:
As part of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, the campus has launched the Urban Tech Hub, which focuses on connecting academic resources with public needs to help make cities more connected, livable, efficient and accessible.
Cornell Tech’s Studio program for master’s degree students and its Runway Startups postdoctoral program together have helped spin out more than 100 companies, which have raised more than $250 million in independent funding, with more than 90% of the startups operating and creating jobs in New York City.
Over Morrisett’s tenure as dean, Cornell Tech has hired nearly 20 new faculty members and increased the number of graduate students by 200 – 83% increases for both since 2019.
In Morrisett’s coming term, the opportunities and challenges presented by AI will be a key focus. Along with developing AI technologies for health care, education and climate change, Cornell Tech will be at the forefront of applying deep research to address the new technology’s major shortcomings. Overcoming bias in data-driven decision making, the massive amounts of energy needed for AI systems, and safeguarding against job losses to computers and robots are all areas of concern, Morrisett said.
“I believe we have a very short window to steer the AI age in the right directions,” he said. “Cornell Tech is uniquely positioned – through our amazing faculty and students, our deep connections to the city of New York and our Cornell heritage – to have an outsized impact on the technical and social challenges we face.”
Morrisett’s own research focuses on the application of programming language technology for building secure, reliable and high-performance software systems. He has worked with students to design programming languages that rule out whole classes of bugs. With respect to software and security, he has served in advising and steering capacities with the National Academies of Science, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Security Agency.
Morrisett received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Richmond (1989), and his master’s (1991) and doctoral (1995) degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He was a Cornell faculty member in computer science from 1996 to 2004. He was then hired by Harvard University, where he served as associate dean for computer science and engineering, director of the Center for Research on Computation and Society, and professor of computer science, until he returned to Cornell in 2015 as dean of what was then the Faculty of Computing and Information Science.
His honors include an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond (2023); election as a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (2014); a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2000); and a National Science Foundation Career Award (1999).
Omari Keeles, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) at Cornell Tech
When Omari Keeles was applying for the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) role at Cornell Tech, one of the first things he noticed was how DEIB values have been ingrained in the campus ethos since its founding – from the descriptions on the website to his conversations with leadership.
DEIB-oriented events, initiatives and programming have been underway at the campus level for faculty, staff and students for years – whether that be a workshop on “Allyship in the Workplace”; “Culture Share,” an annual event where students celebrate their cultures through stories, activities and food; the active and growing staff DEI committee; or through faculty and graduate student research on marginalized communities.
“The foundation had already been laid – now it’s time to build the house,” said Keeles.
While DEIB has been a consistent part of the current social and political conversation, Keeles saw a distinct potential for his role at Cornell Tech, which he started just last month.
By culminating all of the existing excitement and momentum around the DEIB work, he aims to shift the perspectives of the campus, so that these values are permeated and integrated throughout the school, rather than being seen as siloed or a supplement.
“People’s passion often gets misinterpreted for preparation, skills and tools,” said Keeles.
Cornell Tech staff members participating in a Latin Dance Workshop, hosted by the DEIB Staff Committee in collaboration with Ballet Hispánico.
Keeles intends to establish formalized DEIB programming, including training sessions on subjects such as bias in faculty hiring, to ensure that these concepts and principles are integrated throughout employee development.
Evelyn Gordon, Cornell Tech’s Senior Director of Human Resources, said of his hiring, “Omari coming on board will spark and ignite the campus’ sustained commitment to this work, so that we can grow and advance it purposefully.”
Keeles recognizes there is a unique opportunity presented by Cornell Tech’s location within one of the most diverse cities in the world. He emphasizes that while there may be a common misconception that these complex dynamics and discussions are inherent to certain environments, it remains crucial to be intentional about how we engage and build trust with different communities.
“Being situated in a specific place doesn’t automatically equate to an awareness of the communities around you or understanding how to navigate them,” said Keeles.
Although Keeles anticipates some challenges in the new role, he recognizes the fertile ground that Cornell Tech’s DEIB values provide. In fact, he is already instilling the foundational principles of Cornell, epitomized in the motto, “Any person, any study.”
David M. Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital, Inc.
New York, NY (September 26, 2023) – Cornell Tech announced the appointment of David M. Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital, Inc., and member of the Cornell Class of ‘91, to join the Council of fifteen business and technology leaders who oversee Cornell Tech’s mission and strategic goals. Einhorn brings decades of corporate leadership experience and a deep commitment to Cornell University, having served on the Board of Trustees from 2015-2023, including as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee. His unparalleled championship of the University’s public service mission helped launch the Engaged Cornell initiative in 2015 and the opening of the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement in 2021 to integrate community-engaged learning into every facet of the college experience. Einhorn’s dedication to national service, community impact and a culture of pluralism will serve the Council’s mission to drive innovation in education and technology in service of our shared future.
“David’s perspectives on business, society, and higher-education are an ideal fit for the Cornell Tech Council. His commitment to academic engagement has left a lasting impression on countless students and alumni,” said Greg Morrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech. “We eagerly anticipate the influence he will bring to our campus, and as a successful company founder, his perspective and passion for socially responsible business leadership aligns with our mission to foster forward-thinking and principled innovation.”
“As a proud Cornellian, I’m excited to join the Cornell Tech Council and learn from the brilliant faculty, students, and leadership who are pushing the boundaries on what technology can do and the societal challenges it can help address,” said Einhorn. “I look forward to contributing to Cornell Tech’s ambitious mission and supporting the students’ success in and out of the classroom.”
David Einhorn’s appointment to the Cornell Tech Council marks a pivotal moment for the institution, signifying not only the expansion of the Council but the growth of the school and its programs within the technological industries and New York City.
About David. M. Einhorn
DAVID M. EINHORN (’91 BA) is President of Greenlight Capital, Inc. which he co-founded in January 1996. Greenlight is a value-oriented investment advisor whose goal is to achieve high absolute rates of return while minimizing the risk of capital loss. David is also chairman of the boards of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. and Green Brick Partners, Inc.
Mr. Einhorn graduated summa cum laude with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Arts and Sciences and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
He is the author of “Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story,” published in May 2008.
Mr. Einhorn is Founder and Trustee of Einhorn Collaborative, a foundation which helps Americans build stronger relationships and work together across differences to create a socially connected and cohesive society.
One of Einhorn Collaborative’s signature investments is the establishment of the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement at Cornell University to ensure that all undergraduates have a high-quality community-engaged learning experience before they graduate. Because of this partnership, Cornellians will be educated global citizens who practice respect and empathy, seek collaboration and cooperation, and embrace differences in all aspects of their lives.
Mr. Einhorn was appointed to the Cornell Board of Trustees in 2015, and his second and final term concluded on June 30, 2023. Most recently, he has served on the Board’s Executive Committee, as well as its committees on Research and Innovation (co-chair), Student Life, and University Relations. Formerly, he co-chaired the Board’s Committee on Academic Affairs.
Mr. Einhorn also serves on the boards of City Year, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and the Robin Hood Foundation. He has three children: daughters Rachel ’19 and Naomi ’21, and son Mitchell.
Cornell Tech Council
Cornell Tech’s full Council includes: David Siegel, Chair, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Two Sigma, Chairman of Siegel Family Endowment; Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th Mayor of the City of New York; Ursula M. Burns, Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings, Chairwoman of Teneo Holdings LLC, Retired Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation and VEON, Ltd; Aaron Holiday, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 645 Ventures; Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, XCOM; Kraig Kayser, Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees (ex officio); Peggy Koenig, Chair, Abry Partners, LLC; Michael I. Kotlikoff, Provost, Cornell University (ex officio); Howard Morgan, Chairman, B Capital Group; Greg Morrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost, Cornell Tech (ex officio); Martha E. Pollack, President, Cornell University (ex officio); Stephen M. Ross, Chairman and Founder, Related Companies; Niraj Shah, CEO, Co-Founder, and Co-Chairman, Wayfair; Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Vista Equity Partners; Andrew H. Tisch, Co-Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Loews Corporation; Jan Rock Zubrow, President, MedCapital, LLC
About Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.
NEW YORK (September 6, 2023) – Cornell Tech, Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City, today announced six new faculty members who will join the staff during the 2023-24 academic year.
“These amazing additions to our faculty roster bolster Cornell Tech’s unwavering commitment to fostering innovation, groundbreaking research, and collaborative learning in the AI era,” said Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett. “With a passion for pushing the boundaries of knowledge, our new faculty will make a tremendous impact on our campus, in the tech industry and academia, as well as the global community.”
The new faculty are joining a distinguished cohort of professors who are dedicated to shaping the next generation of tech leaders and innovators across key areas including artificial intelligence and machine learning and health. Their work will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the development of innovative solutions that make a positive impact on society.
Effective July 1, 2023:
Frank Pasquale
Frank Pasquale is a Professor of Law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School. He is an expert on the law of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and machine learning. Before coming to Cornell, Pasquale held chaired professorships at the University of Maryland, Seton Hall University, and Brooklyn Law School. His books include The Black Box Society (Harvard University Press, 2015) and New Laws of Robotics (Harvard University Press, 2020). He has published more than 70 journal articles and book chapters and co-edited The Oxford Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Transparent Data Mining for Big and Small Data (Springer-Verlag, 2017).
Jae-sun Seo
Jae-sun Seo joins Cornell Tech as an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. Dr. Seo comes from Arizona State University, where he was an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. His research interests include efficient hardware design of machine learning / neuromorphic algorithms and integrated power management. Dr. Seo was a visiting researcher at Intel and Meta, and he has been recognized with awards from IBM, NSF, Intel, and IEEE.
Kyra Gan
Kyra Gan is an Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell Tech. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Gan was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Harvard Statistics and earned her Ph.D. degree in Operations Research from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research interests include adaptive/online algorithm design in personalized treatment under constrained settings, computerized/automated inference methods, robust causal discovery in medical data, and fairness in organ transplants.
Udit Gupta
Udit Gupta joins the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a visiting assistant professor for the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. His research lies at the intersection of computer architecture, systems for machine learning, and sustainable computing. During his PhD in computer science at Harvard University he was also a Visiting Research Scientist at Meta AI.
Effective August 16, 2023:
Alex Conway
Alex Conway is joining Cornell Tech as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science. Prior to Cornell Tech, Conway served as a researcher at VMware Research Group where he primarily focused on randomized data structures and their applications to memory and storage systems. He earned his PhD in computer science from Rutgers University.
Effective January 1, 2024:
Raaz Dwivedi
Raaz Dwivedi comes to Cornell Tech as an Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Information Engineering. He earned his Ph.D at EECS, UC Berkeley. His research focuses on building effective strategies for personalized decision-making with theory and methods across causal inference, reinforcement learning, and distribution compression, and applications to healthcare. Prior to Cornell, he was a postdoc jointly between Harvard and MIT, and spent time at Microsoft Research. He has received the President of India Gold Medal at IIT Bombay, the Berkeley Fellowship, teaching awards at UC Berkeley and Harvard, and a best student paper award for his work on optimal compression.
About Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.
Israel Cidon, Head of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute
NEW YORK (August 22, 2023) – Cornell Tech announced today that Prof. Israel Cidon – entrepreneur, renowned leader in network engineering and former faculty member and Dean at the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology – joins Cornell Tech as director of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell institute. Cidon will succeed Ron Brachman whose appointment began in 2016.
The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech pushes the boundaries of academia at Cornell Tech, with dual-degree programs in Health Tech, Connective Media, and Urban Tech. Since its founding, the Jacobs Institute has incubated 42 new startup companies, which have filed almost 50 patent applications and secured more than $200 million in private funding. More than 80% of these companies are still operating and, in aggregate, they employ well over 200 employees in New York City.
As the new Director, Cidon will lead the Jacobs Institute’s strategic vision as it continues to grow its interdisciplinary, translational research focused on grand challenges in the digital realm; its innovative dual-degree programs; and its commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship.
“Professor Cidon has led groundbreaking research, co-founded several successful start-ups and developed 65 U.S. patents covering aspects of data networks including mobility, packet switching, security, Internet, and beyond,” said Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett. “His extensive expertise, start-up and industrial research experience – including at VMWare, one of Silicon Valley’s leading companies – will be fundamental to advancing the Jacobs Institute’s mission of offering a global perspective on research, education, technology transfer, commercialization and entrepreneurship.”
“Professor Israel Cidon is an esteemed computer networking researcher with extensive management experience at the Technion,” said Technion President Professor Uri Sivan. “As Dean he led the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering to significant achievements. Professor Cidon has a rich and successful background in entrepreneurship, and he maintains close relationships with the industry. I am confident that he will contribute significantly to strengthening the collaborations between Technion and Cornell University and advancing research and development at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.”
“The Jacobs Institute represents the academic partnership between Cornell University and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology at Cornell Tech,” said Israel Cidon, Head of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. “It’s a privilege to succeed Ron Brachman as director of the Jacobs Institute and build upon Ron’s leadership, furthering the institute’s innovative approach to research and industry partnership.”
Cidon comes to the Institute from VMware Research, where for over six years he served as Vice President and Researcher working on high-performance, world-wide networks that bridged IoT, data centers, public clouds and more, enabling and optimizing geo-distributed modern applications. Prior to his time at VMware, he worked as a faculty member at The Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, published over 180 peer reviewed papers and served as Dean of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2006 to 2010. Cidon has cofounded a number of technology companies, including Micronet Ltd., an early mobile data entry pioneer; Actona Technology, which introduced the basic technology for WAN optimization; Viola Networks, a network quality of service testing and diagnosis; and Sookasa, an organizational SaaS security platform.
About Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s groundbreaking campus for technology research and education on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Our faculty, students and industry partners work together in an ultra-collaborative environment, pushing inquiry further and developing meaningful technologies for a digital society. Founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the City of New York, Cornell Tech achieves global reach and local impact, extending Cornell University’s long history of leading innovation in computer science and engineering.
About Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology celebrates its first centennial this year. The impact of the Technion on Israel’s economy, society and defense is unmatched. It has long leveraged boundary-crossing collaborations to advance breakthrough research and technologies that impacted the world. Now, with a presence in three countries, the Technion prepares the next generation of global innovators. Technion people, ideas and inventions made immeasurable contributions to the world, innovating in fields from cancer research and sustainable energy to communication theory, quantum technologies, nanotechnology, and computer science.
