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City Approves Creation of NYU Applied Sciences School in Brooklyn

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Mayor Bloomberg and NYU President Sexton celebrate creation of new applied sciences center in downtown Brooklyn.In a historic agreement with the City of New York and the MTA, New York University has announced its plans to create a special applied sciences school in downtown Brooklyn.

The NYU Center For Urban Science and Progress – to be located at the old Transit Authority building on 370 Jay Street – will be 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 partnership 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 technology companies, IBM and Cisco. The new school will grant academic degrees in engineering and sciences.

“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.” Steven Koonin – a theoretical physicist who has served as Undersecretary of Energy for Science and as Provost of the California Institute of Technology – will serve as CUSP’s inaugural director.

New York University’s proposal for the new educational center was selected due to its bold vision to provide solutions for the world’s growing cities in the 21st century. The Center for Urban Science and Progress 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 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.

“Being ‘in and of the City’ is part of NYU’s DNA; at no point has that been truer than today,” NYU President John 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.”

Approximately 150,000 square feet of the 370 Jay Street 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.
“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 Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “This world-class campus will create thousands of jobs for generations to come and give Brooklyn yet another name: College Town, USA!”

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. 

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.

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.

“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.

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